


May I have this Dance?

by jolly_love



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Auror Harry Potter, Auror Ron Weasley, Bisexual Harry Potter, Breakup, Cheating, Dancing Lessons, Draco Malfoy is a Good Boyfriend, Draco owns a Dancing Studio, Eating Disorders, F/M, Flashbacks, Gay Draco Malfoy, Ginny is a bitch, Good Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter is a Good Parent, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Pining, Pregnant Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend, Waltzing, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-01-02 08:17:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21158510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolly_love/pseuds/jolly_love
Summary: Ginny and Harry are getting married. Since Harry is a very bad dancer, Ginny signs them up for dancing classes. It just so turns out that the man behind the dancing studio is Draco Malfoy and Harry suddenly finds himself in memories of their eighth year at Hogwarts, while trying to balance the wedding planning with his dancing lessons and a very distracting blond wizard.





	1. The Dancing Teacher

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea while reading another book and I’m slightly pissed that I couldn’t finish the book, but had to go ahead and spend my whole Sunday planning and writing half of this story. I have been re-writing and working with music for the past few days and now I'm finally able to post the first chapter of this story. I'm not quite finished, only 2 chapter to write (it's already planned out).
> 
> On the other hand, I actually really like this story! It got, however, slightly out of hand, because I hadn’t actually wanted Ginny and Harry to break up (which you can read in the tags), but it just kind of happened. Anyway, updates are every other day. I’m writing more details into all the chapters before uploading.
> 
> I’m thankful for all the kudos and comments :D  
By the way: All the music I'm referencing, you can find with Youtube-Links in the notes at the end of every chapter.

„Harry, you know I did this for you right?” Ginny looked at him with her eyebrows raised. Harry knew this look all too well. She was unhappy that he was complaining. In fact, this look had started to get his daily reminder of the happy days the two of them had _had_. Something had changed when he had asked her to marry him after almost seven years of being boyfriend and girlfriend.

Sighing, Harry nodded. “I know, Ginny. It just feels weird to have someone comment on how to dance properly. I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper dance lesson, except with McGonagall.”

He had to admit that those lessons hadn’t much helped. It was only once and she only showed them how to dance for about ten minutes. Then it was up to them and Harry had to remember that even while he was dancing on the dance floor at the Yule Ball, he had felt extremely awkward.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “This didn’t do so much for your dancing, though.” Where earlier in their relationship, this might have been a joke, it was quite clearly meant as an insult. 

Harry bit his lips and didn’t know what to say. How did their beautiful relationship turn sour and when even did that happen? How could he not have realized it until now?

They were standing in a Muggle dancing studio, in a huge room surrounded by mirrors, into which a young man had led them before telling them that his boss would be there in a second. Harry wasn’t feeling alright, he had always hated to look at himself in a mirror and now these were everywhere. He could see himself from every angle and he did not like what he saw. His clothes were okay, finally not too big and baggy. But his hair was weird and he felt as if he needed to shave again, even though he was sure he had shaved just this morning.

His fiancé grinned at the mirrors, looking very comfortable. Right now, she was looking at her ass, which could actually be seen very well from the loose dancing clothes she was wearing right now. Her hair was quite long, but she had charmed it into a shorter braid.

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. Ginny was a good enough dancer, but the lessons she was giving him were tough and fast and he had stopped to understand anything after just two hours. So, they came here and Ginny had made it clear that her husband-to-be needed the dancing lessons, not her.

Saved from answering anything, the door opened and a young man with blond hair entered. As he closed the door, he suddenly seemed to realize who was standing there. Harry did so as well and even Ginny recognized him and stopped dead in her tracks, though probably not for the same reason as the two men had.

*

_”Draco, we can’t just keep meeting in the Room of Requirements! Everyone at Hogwarts knows about it! They’ll find out eventually!” Harry looked around and shook his head. Even the thought of being found out sent shivers down his spine. He didn’t want to be outed yet. He wasn’t even sure if he actually was supposed to be in this relationship. Well… He wanted to be in this relationship, because it felt so good, but was it even going to last after Hogwarts?_

_The Slytherin grinned and pulled him closer. “So what? Let them come; we can fight those idiots together! It’s only four more weeks until we’re finally done with Hogwarts and can live together!”_

_Harry freed himself and shook his head. He felt tears running down his face and it seemed that this was the moment Draco realized that they were probably not going to move in together or even be together. He stepped back and narrowed his eyes._

_“Do you even love me, Harry?”_

_Breathing heavily, Harry held his hand in front of his eyes, more tears streaming down his face. He needed a minute to compose himself, before he could answer, so that his voice wasn’t shaking even more. “Yes, Draco. Yes, I do!”_

_When he opened his eyes, he had spoken to an empty room. Draco was gone._

*

The fact that they would be meeting again almost nine years after the eighth year at Hogwarts, seemed to be a huge coincidence. Especially because Harry knew that Ginny would have never chosen this dance studio if she’d known.

“Malfoy? What are you doing here?” she asked and put her hands at her hips.

Draco’s eyes had been glued to Harry, but he soon turned to Ginny and smiled slightly, though it didn’t seem to be a happy one. “I am your dance instructor.” He looked very tense, though Harry was sure that only he could see it, since he was hiding it quite nicely.

The man did look good; he had never gotten over a change of his hair, so it was almost the same as in Hogwarts, though not as slick. His body form was fit and even showing muscles through the clothes. And speaking of his clothes, he was wearing black elastic joggers and a red hoodie, probably not expecting so see someone recognizing the Gryffindor colors. In fact, Harry remembered having gifted him that exact hoddie for Christmas, telling him to get used to the red, because he was going to see a lot of it in the future.

It was quiet for a while, where Harry looked at the ground, not willing to meet either of the other’s eyes. Ginny was the one who brought him here, so she should decide whether or not she wanted him to be their dancing instructor. Or if they should just run away. Honestly, he would have preferred the second option.

“Fine” he heard Ginny’s voice after a long break. “But if you do anything that I haven’t given my blessing to, I’ll tell everyone what you’re doing.”

Harry looked up slightly to see Draco still looking at him. However, as if he had waited for him to look up, Draco turned to Ginny and nodded. “Fine by me.”

He walked through the room with such confidence, that Harry had a hard time not looking at him, so he turned to his wife-to-be instead. She had narrowed eyes and was frowning at Draco very much. Their new dance instructor didn’t waste any time, but started talking almost immediately.

“So, what dances have you chosen for the wedding?” he asked and pulled out a piece of paper on a board which was probably making it easier for him to write.

Ginny’s eyes lit up and Harry frowned at the floor. It was as if she just wanted to get married for the dance, not really for their relationship. He shook his head at this thought and looked back up. Draco had watched him like a hawk and Harry turned slightly red and looked back at the floor.

“Definitely the typical dances you have at a wedding! Like Waltz, or Foxtrot, Swing, Rumba, Mambo or Salsa! What do you think?” Ginny smiled at the Slytherin broadly. Harry had long ago stopped trying to tell her that he wasn’t comfortable with dancing in front of thousands of people. She had only rolled her eyes and invited more strangers to their wedding.

Draco chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. “A little much to learn in a few weeks, wouldn’t you agree? How about you choose two or three dances?” As Harry looked up again, Draco looked at him and smiled. He couldn’t really place that smile, but it seemed friendly enough. “H… Potter? Any suggestions?”

“Oh, he can’t dance. Why would he have suggestions?!” Ginny laughed and rolled her eyes at Harry. He pressed his lips into a fine line and looked back at the floor. His soon-to-be-wife was already talking about two other dances which she wanted to have in their wedding but she wasn’t sure whether or not they were appropriate such an occasion.

Draco listened to everything and put down the paper. “I think we should start with something every newlywed pair needs to be able to pull off: the Waltz. To see where the two of you are standing, I’d like for you to start dancing.” He placed music into the box and turned around again.

Ginny pulled his hands towards her and just started; Harry was too confused and embarrassed to do anything against it and just followed her, even though she tried to be the one not leading. However, it must have looked very bad. Harry was not ready to be dancing in front of Draco. He was not ready in the slightest!

After about two full minutes, the music stopped and Draco frowned at the two of them. “I see. There are some problems and I can’t work with all of them at once. I’d like for you two to have separate dates, until we have the same dancing level. Then we can start this again. When’s the wedding? In seven weeks, right?”

Ginny once again smiled broadly and Harry felt as if he was going to be sick. How had he asked her to marry him? How had he not seen this earlier?!

“Correct! In seven weeks! We wanted to be prepared for our wedding, so we’re starting early!” She jumped a little and threw her hands around Harry’s neck. The longer this went on, the more confused Harry became. Also, Ginny thought it was early to start dancing lessons seven weeks before the wedding? Maybe it was for her, but not for Harry.

Draco nodded at them and smiled once again. “Very good. I would prefer for the two of you not to dance together for a while – let’s say four weeks. After that we’re doing partner lessons. Are you happy with that?”

Ginny nodded and Harry shrugged his shoulders, before nodding as well. He was not looking at Draco, since he had no idea how to work with their past. Draco might have moved on, he never had. Ginny was just supposed to be a rebound, but until an hour ago, he had actually never realized how much he didn’t like to be in this relationship. And now they were getting married?!

“Well” Draco started again. “Weasley, I think you’re a better dancer, so I’ll refer you to Alejandro, he’s one of our professional dancers and I think you could learn a lot from him.”

Harry looked at Ginny again and her eyes were even bigger and happier than before. Draco was definitely doing something right. “Sadly, we don’t have that many other free teachers, so I’ll be overlooking your progress… Potter.”


	2. The first Lesson

_”How are you so bad at this, Harry?!” Draco snickered as Harry once again stepped on his partner’s foot. Harry felt heat rise to his face and shrugged his shoulders._

_“Why would I even need to learn how to dance, Draco? I told you, I’m never going to marry! Marriage is just an institution for… pain and suffering.”_

_“What?” Draco laughed and hugged him tightly._

_Harry chuckled and inhaled Draco’s sweet scent of strawberries. He was sure that his boyfriend had eaten some beforehand. The Slytherin swayed them around the room and Harry didn’t even look at what was going on, until Draco cupped his cheeks._

_He smiled warmly. “I think I’ve found your trigger.”_

_Frowning, Harry looked at him. “My trigger? What do you mean, darling?”_

_“You just don’t want to think that you’re dancing. Because we are currently waltzing. And look at you, not stepping on my toes.”_

_Harry looked down and saw the miniscule dance moves the Slytherin was doing and Harry following. He chuckled and threw his arms around the other man’s neck. “That’s just because it’s you, Draco. Everyone else can fuck off with their dancing.”_

_Draco burst out laughing and whirled him around in the hidden room. “You’re so romantic, my dear!”_

_“Anything for you, babe.”_

*

Harry opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. He hadn’t had any memories of the two of them in dream form for almost eight years. Seeing Draco must have somehow triggered everything to come back to him.

If that was the case, he was in for a ride.

Getting up, he looked at the bed, where Ginny had left a note. He yawned and got up to take a shower. A while ago, he would have read the note already at least five times, because it was Ginny who wrote it, but not now. Not today, where he could somehow still hear Draco’s laughter inside his head. No laugh had ever had the same impact on him and made him feel so happy.

Sighing, Harry left the shower, dressed and headed to the other side of the bed to look at Ginny’s hasty writing.

> Harry,
> 
> Pick up some milk when you’re coming home. Kingsley sent an owl reminding you to go to the meeting, since you want to be Head Auror; you need to show at least some interest. And remember, you’re having dancing lessons tonight. I could convince Malfoy to give you lessons three times a week instead of twice. You can thank me sometime.
> 
> See you later!
> 
> Ginny

Great. He was going to see Draco three times a week? For four weeks?! Yes, there was definitely nothing going to go wrong… He definitely wasn’t having flashbacks to their happy times together after only meeting him for half an hour once. There was absolutely nothing happening if he was going to dance with him. 

“Absolutely nothing!” Harry said out loud, though his voice betrayed him with the hope it projected. Harry leaned on the wall and looked at the floor. He had never had the chance to tell Draco how he really felt. The blond had left Hogwarts during the night and he had only heard it from the remaining Slytherins, though no one seemed to have their theories right.

Harry knew why he had left. He had always wanted to tell him how he felt, but the N.E.W.T.s were suddenly there and he had to learn in every free second and when he decided to go into Auror Training, they took up every second of his free time and by the time he could think clearly again, Ginny was there, keeping him busy. The two of them never really stood a chance.

As it turned evening, Harry walked through Muggle London, finding the dance studio rather quickly. He pushed open a door and walked through a long hallway, where you could look inside through the glass doors. On the other side of the glass, there were thousands of pictures of happy couples dancing and bigger groups posing for group pictures. All Muggle pictures. In one of the rooms, there were children who were getting some dancing lessons by a young woman with a pony tail and blond hair and a shining red trainer.

The next room was occupied by elders learning some dance Harry had never heard off – though he couldn’t probably even place the dance moves to the right dance. Their teacher was a young man with curly, red hair and shining blue eyes. He was wearing black jeans and a white top and yelled loudly over the music.

The third room was empty and the fourth was inhabited by Draco, looking through some CDs. Harry sighed and tried his hardest not to look at the man. He was rocking comfortable looking trousers and a light blue button up shirt. His hair was longer and Harry remembered telling him in Hogwarts how he had always wanted Draco to grow out his hair, because he thought it would look amazing on him. The problem was… he had been right.

Knocking on the door, Harry entered the small ball room. The Slytherin looked up and smiled at him. “Harry! Nice for you to stop by. A little late, but still.”

“I’m not late!” Harry looked on his watch and froze. “Well, I’m not _that_ late…”

Draco smirked and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t worry, Harry. We’re just adding the minutes you’ve lost to the next lesson. Tonight, I actually don’t have more time.”

Harry frowned slightly. “What are you doing?”

The Slytherin placed a CD into the machine and pressed play. Harry stopped dead in his track as he recognized the music instantly. Draco had taught him how to dance with this song and he had never completely gotten it out of his head. He wondered whether or not Draco felt the same way…

The Second Waltz written by Dmitri Shostakovich immediately sounded and Draco turned down the volume. He walked closer to Harry and smiled. “There’s a program for former addicts that I’m leading. We’re giving them a place to pour all their emotions out and direct them into something better than alcohol or drugs. We’re meeting every Tuesday, which is why I don’t have any time now.”

Draco held out his hands and smiled. Harry couldn’t place it, but he had a feeling it looked slightly sad. “You’re leading, Harry.”

Hesitantly, Harry grabbed his hands and he led Draco around the room. It worked so much better than with Ginny. Probably, because they had been dancing together for so long. Basically every free minute where they could sneak away, they would meet in the Room of Requirement, dancing away their time, staring into each other’s eyes.

The music ended and Draco nodded. “Much better than last time. Have you been practicing?”

“No.”

Draco looked at him for a second, before he turned back to the music, starting another song. He walked back up towards Harry. Without saying a word, he held out his hands and Harry followed, leading him though another waltz. He only barely missed the other man’s feet about five times.

Harry could still feel Draco’s touch, when he was long gone and worked with the music box again. He had missed him so much. However, he couldn’t really say anything like that.

“So I though you think that marriage is just an excuse for pain and suffering. Why would you want to marry for that?” Draco suddenly asked while another song sounded and they started dancing again.

“I don’t know.”

Draco frowned. “You don’t know why you want to marry?”

Harry nodded hesitantly. “We’ve been together for too long and marriage is just the next logical step.”

The Slytherin stopped dead in his track, which made Harry bump into him, before he almost jumped back. Draco pushed a blonde strain out of his face and shook his head. The blonde strain of hair had found its way back into Draco’s face. “Harry, that’s not why people should marry. It shouldn’t be logical.”

They stood there quietly staring at each other, until Harry finally decided to say something. “Well, I’ve tried not logical and it didn’t turn out well, so we’re going logical” he answered much more angry that he had initially wanted. Draco looked at him, as if he was examining him.

“You’re right. And I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to say something. I hope you’re at least happy with your relationship” Draco finally answered and held out his hands to start dancing again.

Harry nodded slightly. “I am happy. Very happy actually. Thank you for asking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Dmitri Shostakovich - The Second Waltz ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOK8Jb76ibc)


	3. The future looks good... hopefully

“Hey Harry!”

Looking up from the book Harry had been reading, he saw a young boy with flaming red hair standing in the middle of his living room. Harry quickly got up and smiled broadly.

“Teddy! Look at you! Did you come here all by your own?”

His godson nodded clearly proud of having traveled with the floo all by himself. He was ten years old and could get his letter for Hogwarts any second now. It was funny to see, how whenever Teddy remembered it, he stared out the window with big eyes. Andromeda had apparently refused to tell him that he would get said letter on his birthday.

He ran towards Harry and hugged him immediately. Harry laughed and hugged him as well. He hadn’t seen Teddy in about two months, since work was suddenly very much and the dancing lessons had started. And Ginny didn’t really love Teddy as much as he did. Well, that was his suspicion. They never really discussed it.

Teddy looked up at him again and grinned. “Granny Andy said that I could stay the weekend, if it’s okay with you.”

Harry smirked and nodded. Of course he was going to say yes! There was no scenario in which he would say no to anything his godson wanted. Well, unless it was dangerous. However, a weekend with him and Ginny shouldn’t be too dangerous.

“Can we go to the cinema?” Teddy asked with wide eyes.

Laughing loudly, Harry finally realized why Teddy wanted to be with him. Of course he wanted to go and watch a movie at the cinema. His godson loved to see Muggle movies ever since Harry had introduced him to them and whenever he would come to stay with him, they would go and watch a movie together.

Harry watched as his godson grabbed a very well read magazine for the movies and pointed to a Disney movie he wanted to watch. A second after Harry had nodded, he felt himself pushed out of the house.

“Let’s go then!” Teddy called and grabbed Harry’s jacket.

Chuckling, Harry followed Teddy, who was leading the way to the cinema they both liked to visit. It was on the outskirts of Muggle London, which meant that not that many people went there compared to the cinemas in the middle of London.

Deciding to once again go with public transportation, Harry nudged Teddy towards the Underground. After forty minutes, they had finally reached their cinema of choice and Teddy was jumping in the air, looking forward to the movie. He was circling Harry, who only grinned.

That was until a very well known voice reached his ears. “Harry?”

Turning around, Harry was faced with Draco, who looked as if he was out on a date. “Oh, hi Draco.” Great, not even would they meet every week three times, because he had dancing lessons, now they would also meet just because. Teddy had stopped jumping and was suddenly hiding behind Harry’s back. Even though he had such a happy personality, meeting new people had always been hard for him.

As Harry turned slightly to look at his godson, the boy changed his hair into platinum blond to match Draco’s. Harry held his breath for just a second. He knew very well that there were two reasons for that: Teddy looked extremely like the Draco Malfoy Harry had met in Madam Malkin's and the other one was that they were in Muggle London and people weren’t really understanding of magic. He caught himself again and looked around to see if anyone had been looking at them. Luckily, nobody had seen the magic. 

“Teddy, what did I tell you about changing your hair color in public?” Harry reminded him calmly.

His godson turned slightly red and looked at the floor. “Not to do it, because Muggles won’t understand it.”

Nodding, Harry smiled softly at Teddy, before turning back at Draco, who had been smiling at the two of them. He didn’t have time to say anything, as the Slytherin started talking almost immediately. “So, you’ve adopted Teddy?”

Teddy snickered and shook his head, slowly getting out behind Harry’s back. Harry smiled. “Not really, no. Andromeda wouldn’t let me adopt him, but…”

“He’s my honorary father!” Teddy said and looked up at Harry with a huge smile in his face.

Harry smirked and ruffled through his hair. “Teddy, this is Draco Malfoy, a former class mate of mine. Why don’t you go inside already? Maybe you can see Samuel?”

Teddy’s eyes lit up and he dashed into the small cinema. Harry knew that the cinema cat, Samuel, was one of the reasons why Teddy loved to come here. And the people inside knew him as well. So Harry didn’t feel scared when his godson was inside without him. The technician had formed a very deep friendship with him, since she had shown him around in the upper floors and he had gotten so see what happened with the movies there.

Draco chuckled and brought Harry back to reality. “Who is Samuel? Are you on a date or something?”

Harry smirked. “I’m getting married, Draco. Dating now would be a little weird.” Draco suddenly seemed to remember that and shrugged his shoulders. “Samuel is the cinema cat. Is that your first time here?”

The Slytherin grinned and nodded. “I’m not really a movie guy.”

There were some memories that wanted to overcome Harry, but he decided to stay in the present. There was no way he was going to go under into a memory of his, just because of something Draco had said. He also remembered somewhere that Draco probably hated movies, because Harry had been the one to introduce him to them.

Well, he didn’t have time to dive into a memory anyway, as Teddy walked out looking very sad. Harry frowned and tilted his head slightly. “What’s going on Teddy?”

“Samuel died last week!”

Harry felt the sadness radiating off of his godson and hugged him. “He was old, you did know that right?” Teddy nodded into the hug. “Well, you see, dying is a part of life. It’s just as natural as getting older, Slugger.”

Teddy looked up at him and through his watery eyes, Harry could see him being slightly scared. “Does that mean I might lose you too?”

Once again, Harry was at a loss for words, he had no idea how to give Teddy his love of life back… Suddenly, there was another voice and Harry looked over to the Slytherin who smiled softly.

“You don’t need to be scared to lose your amazing godfather for a long time, young man. Instead of focusing on the inevitable, strive to live your life to the fullest.” Draco smiled again and Harry suddenly remembered why it sounded so familiar. Once again, he fought to keep his memories at bay. “We don’t go to the grave having regrets, you know. This is why people keep saying that if you want to travel the world, then do it and if you want to be adventurous and go skydiving, scuba diving, white water rafting, then you should do it. Experiencing death is just a way to remind us that we should do the most with our life.”

Teddy had listened carefully and nodded after a while. He hugged Harry again, before running back inside, saying something that sounded like Juliana, the manager, was letting him choose another cat for the cinema.

Harry looked back at Draco, unsure of what he should be saying, when two familiar faces appeared in the alley and walked out a second later. He recognized the two of them immediately. Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.

“Hey Draco” Pansy smiled, but stopped in the middle of the small road, when she recognized Harry. “Potter? What are you doing here?”

“I’m here with my godson, watching a movie, obviously.” Harry couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

Blaise frowned. “Then why are you outside? And where’s your godson?”

Instead of him, Draco answered this question. “We had a little problem with a feeling of depression and approaching death. So we talked to Ha… Potter’s godson about it.”

“Just like an old married couple” Pansy snickered, which made Harry bite his lower lip, avoid Draco’s eyes and he decided to go into the cinema as well.

As he entered the small cinema, he heard Draco asking the two of them why they had picked this movie theater and that there were thousands of different once. He could also hear Blaise asking Draco why it mattered and that they all lived in London and that they were bound to run into each other at one point or another.

Smirking slightly, Harry was pretty sure that Draco hadn’t told his two friends that he was teaching him in dancing. Otherwise their discussion would have sounded a little different. He was sure of that.

While Harry and Teddy sat in the dark movie theater, Harry was experiencing another memory, which he was actually trying not to see or remember. However, the memories were doing whatever they wanted; he had realized that a few times already.

*

_In the Common room, Harry had heard Pansy talk with Theo and Blaise about how depressed Draco had been all day long and that she couldn’t seem to get through to him. Frowning slightly, Harry left immediately, heading to the Room of Requirement. He hadn’t seen Draco all day long and was sure that he was hiding here._

_As the door appeared, Harry opened it carefully to see that there was a huge room existing already. It was full of little niches, empty wardrobes and tables under which you could hide yourself perfectly. Sighing, Harry looked around and decided to listen for any sound. There was nothing._

_“Draco?” he called out and performed a volte-face. Nothing. “Draco darling, I know you’re here! And I’m not leaving!”_

_“Go away!” he heard the Slytherin call from a few feet away._

_Harry walked into the direction he had heard his boyfriend calling from and was soon faced with a dark wooden wardrobe. Draco had once said that if he could have free range of what he would put into his room, a wardrobe made out of dark wood was the first thing._

_“Draco, I know you’re in there.” Harry knocked at the wardrobe door and heard a soft sob from that exact wardrobe. “Please let me talk to you, let me help you.”_

_It was quiet for a second, before he heard the Slytherin whisper something. “I can’t be saved by the Savior anymore.”_

_“I don’t need to save you, darling. I want to be there for you, because that’s what good boyfriends do, Draco!”_

_The door opened just a little and Harry could see the red eyes of his boyfriend. He quickly opened the door more and sat down next to Draco, trying his best to ignore the panic that was settling in, whenever he was in tight spaces._

_“What happened, darling?”_

_Draco rubbed his eyes and snuffled. “My mother died today” he blubbered out. Harry was shocked and stared at him for a few moments._

_He then pulled him into a tight hug and kissed his cheek. “Oh Draco, I am so sorry! How did she die?”_

_“She couldn’t handle it anymore. The mediwitches say she used the dark magic inside the library to basically burn herself to death with all the books inside and the Manor is now restricted for everyone.”_

_Harry stared at Draco, not really willing to believe what he had heard. She had seemed so strong when she had lied to Voldemort for him. That woman just killed herself? It seemed a little… weird. Draco was sobbing again and Harry pulled him even closer._

_“What do I do now, Harry? Father died two months ago in Azkaban and now my mother? I don’t know what to do! Am I next?” He was crying and Harry shook his head, squeezing him to his own body._

_“No, darling, no. You’re not next, dear. You know, Draco, instead of focusing on the inevitable, strive to live your life to the fullest. We don’t go to the grave having regrets, right?” Harry smiled softly and held him tightly. “If you want to travel the world, then do it. If you want to be adventurous and go skydiving, scuba diving, white water rafting, or whatever else you would like to do, you should do it! Experiencing death is just a way to remind us that we should do the most with our life. And that life is too short to worry about tomorrow, dear. Tomorrow may after all never come.”_

_Harry kissed the top of Draco’s head and smiled softly. “But one thing you can count on: I will always be there for you, Draco!”_


	4. Dancing should be easy

The Sound of Johann Strauss II’s Vienna Blood Waltz filled the air as Draco held out his hands and Harry sighed internally. He grabbed his hands and started to lead. One-two-three, one-two-three, one-two…

“Don’t look at your feet, Harry.”

Blinking quickly, Harry raised his head and looked behind Draco. He was not going to look into his eyes. No sir! Even though he could recite all of the dancing rules and lessons Draco had given him at Hogwarts, he was actively trying not to stare too long into his eyes. What would happen if he did? He was already having flashbacks and… dancing was what they had done at Hogwarts when they were all alone. Harry had wanted to get better and Draco offered to be his private tutor.

A snap right next to his ear brought him back to reality. “Honestly, Harry. Where are you with your thoughts? Dancing is about being right here and now. You can’t just let your mind wander off, because then you’ll stop dancing. Point in fact.” The Slytherin gestured to the floor and Harry realized that he had in fact stopped dancing.

“Sorry” Harry whispered and bit his lower lip.

Draco shook his head and, once Harry was moving again, decided to speak up again. “It’s not your fault. I know that. I should have referred _you_ to Alejandro, not your fiancé.”

Even though Harry wanted to agree to that, he shook his head. “She wouldn’t have wanted that. In fact, she’s very happy with him.”

She’d had her first dancing lesson a day after Harry had his. And now, the second lesson this week, the third time having seen Draco in a week. It was hurting much more than he would have liked to admit. Draco and he’d had something special at Hogwarts. They had somehow found each other in great need and hurt and they made each other better.

*

_“Hermione, I’m heading to the library, there should be…”_

_His friend looked up a little surprised. “The library closes in ten minutes, Harry!”_

_Chuckling, Harry rolled his eyes. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Draco watching him, before turning towards Pansy with whom he had been learning. “Yes, Hermione, if you would have let me finish talking, you would know that I’m just going to look for something I might have left there!”_

_“Oh” Hermione smiled at him. “Try and be back before curfew ends.”_

_Harry smiled. “I can’t promise anything. I think I need to go look somewhere else if I don’t find it.”_

_He didn’t wait for Hermione to say something, but walked to the entrance of their eighth year Common Room. When he passed Draco and Pansy, he could hear Pansy talking loud and clearly._

_“Draco, come on! You can write the essay here! No need to go hide somewhere around the castle!”_

_The blond wizard caught Harry’s eyes and shrugged, looking back at Pansy. “It’s way too loud in here! Everyone’s having fun! Over there” he pointed to the corner “some Hufflepuffs have started to play exploding snap. I can’t write my essay with that!”_

_Harry had left the Common Room, before Pansy answered and strolled down the hallway. After a few seconds, he heard fast steps approaching behind him and turned around to find a broadly smiling Slytherin jump around his neck._

_“You’re crazy, Draco!” Harry laughed and kissed him deeply, before he had the chance to answer anything._

_The Slytherin grabbed his hands and he made him dance through the halls towards the Room of Requirement. Only then did they stop and Draco leaned closer, having pinned Harry to the wall. “I am crazy, darling.”_

_“Don’t say it, Draco!”_

_“Don’t say what?” Draco smirked and kissed Harry before he had time to respond. Once he pulled back, the door had formed and the Slytherin pushed him backwards through it right on top of a huge couch. “I’m crazy about you, Harry.”_

*

“Okay, Harry, listen” Draco spoke up and brought Harry back to the reality. “I’ll show you how to lead properly. Try and copy me when we change the lead again, okay?”

Harry nodded and Draco placed his hands correctly and started leading the way. It felt so right being led by Draco that Harry almost melted while they were dancing. He hadn’t had the opportunity to be led in forever and in fact he had never let anybody else take control, not even when they were out partying (where you couldn’t really see who was in control of the dance). But Draco leading the way was just something that was so deep in his memory that he wanted to keep it there. Well, no. Actually he wanted it to be reality again.

And now it was as if the memory was alive and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling slightly. Draco must have seen it as well, since he grinned as well and very deliberately stepped on his foot.

“What… hey ouch!” Harry stopped and looked at Draco stunned.

The Slytherin grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “Only about twenty seven times to go and we’re even.”

Harry narrowed his eyes, though couldn’t keep a smirk from his lips. “You are just pure evil, Draco! I haven’t stepped on your feet once the last week! That should count for something.” He grinned again and shrugged his shoulders. “Everything else is lapsed.”

“You wish!” Draco laughed and shook his head. Harry smirked himself and after a little break, Draco had himself under control again. “Okay, can we go back to dancing? Did you see how to lead?”

Nodding a little hesitantly, Harry still tried to look convinced. Draco looked at him carefully, before shrugging his shoulders. “Well, then lead the way with the next song. I will remind you that I still have a list with the exact number of how many times you stumped on my feet and I will give it back to you!”

Harry chuckled and rolled his eyes. He felt himself relax a little and lead Draco so much better through the room than he had done previously. They ended with Draco turning himself while holding onto Harry’s hand. And once again, he felt the pain of their separation in his bones, when Draco turned and smiled at him.

“Much better, Harry!”

Nodding, he started packing everything. However, before he could leave, Draco faced him one more time. “How’s Teddy doing?” he asked and smiled softly.

“I believe much better thanks to you. The manager of the cinema let him choose another cinema cat and he already asked if he could stay the weekend with me again” Harry told him and grinned. “Andromeda’s not really happy with it.”

Draco smirked. “Why did he say you’re his honorary father?”

“Well, I’m his father figure much like Sirius and Remus were my father figures at Hogwarts. And well, Andromeda told me that when I’m married, I’m allowed to adopt him. Teddy wanted to live with me forever and now that I’m actually getting married…”

Draco nodded and they were quiet for a second, before he started talking quietly. “You do need to have your priorities straight, Harry. I know you love Teddy, everyone can see that, but you shouldn’t marry just so you can adopt him.”

Harry frowned, but decided not to answer to that. He wasn’t marrying Ginny just to adopt Teddy. That would be weird, right? He grabbed his things and had soon after left the dance studio on his way to meet Ron and some other former Auror Trainees. The new fully fletched Aurors had all had their exams today and Ron had helped them through their exams while Harry had helped with the practical stuff.

Entering the bar at the very end of Wizarding London, Harry was immediately led to the private room they had booked for their festivities. When Harry entered the room, he saw each and everyone inside.

Ron came and greeted him with a brotherly hug and yelled loudly into the room: “We’ve all passed!” A very loud cheer erupted and Harry laughed, before he was hugged by about fifteen different wizards and witches at once.

It needed about two hours until the high was about to slow down. Two new Aurors were already sleeping their alcohol out of the system in a corner, the biggest group had just started to play spin the bottle, though everyone was way too drunk to even realize what was going on. Three others were in a discussion whether or not Muggles were just wizards in hiding and whether or not they should take each and every one of them to Azkaban, while three girls were talking about the best zombie make up.

Harry sighed, when he joined Ron at a table and grinned at him. “Please tell me you locked the room and made it impossible to apparate. Carl Dross over there is talking about imprisoning innocent Muggles.”

Ron smirked and shook his head. “I did. They can’t get out of here until they’re all done with their alcohol. I ordered beds for the people; they are charmed to pop up in an hour.”

“Smart man!” Harry smirked and grabbed another beer.

Chuckling, Ron thanked him. “I haven’t seen you around as of lately, what is my lovely sister doing with you?”

Harry laughed and rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t ask that if you’d know that it would be happening in our bed.” Well, what even was happening in their bed? Pretty much nothing was the answer to that. On most nights Harry wasn’t even sure whether or not Ginny had slept in it…

Ron nodded. “I heard you’re having dance lessons! How’s it going? My only lessons were with McGonagall.”

At their wedding, they had invited a lot of Hogwarts staff and Ron had at the end, asked McGonagall to dance ‘for old time’s sake’. She couldn’t refuse and the two had shared a much less awkward dance. Harry had actually liked to see them, since Ron had become a much better dancer than at Hogwarts.

“It’s going okay. I can’t really lead my partner” Harry admitted and remembered how Ginny had basically led him by dancing the first time. He frowned slightly, not really happy with that memory. He quickly replaced it with Draco dancing with him and how easy it had felt when they had danced. It was clear to him, that he had lost track of time when he was with him.

Ron laughed. “It was hard for me as well. But Hermione had so much patience with me and in the end her father taught me how to dance. That was a little awkward at first.”

Harry huffed and drank another sip of his cold beer. “Sounds awkward enough to me, Ron. Well, we’re in a professional dance studio and my teacher is very good.”

Why couldn’t he just say that the studio seemed to belong to Draco Malfoy and that the man teaching him how to dance was that exact man? Somehow, he didn’t want to be judged and he was sure that talking about the blond would start exactly that: judgment.

They spent the hour theorizing about different dancing techniques, until the beds appeared and everyone seemed to be extremely happy, chose one and fell asleep almost immediately.

Harry decided to stay awake and was in next to no time the only one awake, as even Ron had decided to sleep for a while. In the dark, surrounded by people breathing calmly, Harry was soon taken in by the memory of a blond wizard dancing only for his eyes in the moon light on a velvet carpet in the middle of the Room of Requirement. His eyes were sparkling, when he turned around and danced a few more steps into his direction, almost drawing him into a kiss, before dancing away again, leaving Harry hanging, which made him only yearn more for the wizard.

“You mean everything to me, Harry” Draco whispered quietly, when he was close again and captured his lips in a passionate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Johann Strauss II – Vienna Blood Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQrGAQZM5Y)


	5. And that was only Week two

Harry sighed and rubbed his temples. He was in their kitchen, cooking dinner for their guests and themselves. Ginny was… somewhere and Ron and Hermione were going to be here in a matter of minutes. His thoughts, however, were not there. He had already changed the menu from a complicated roast beef with a homemade béarnaise sauce to spaghetti and meatballs, but he had needed to change the hot water twice because he had put too much salt into it. Both times.

There was one memory in his mind and it wasn’t even that old. Draco had smiled at him and it was honest and warm. When he had told Draco that he couldn’t dance, that he was never going to learn it and he should just give up, Draco had shaken his head and smiled. And he had told him not to give up, because all the big and great things needed time. That and then he had teased him about how he could have given up when he was saving the world and he should just imagine that dancing and leading Ginny would be the secret to saving the Wizarding World.

Smirking slightly, Harry shook his head. He stared into the water where the spaghetti was cooking. He then turned his attention to the meatballs and the sauce. Ginny would be killing him, since she had tried to make their household meat-free. But Harry knew that Ron and Hermione both really loved meat, so it was worth it.

The fire place sounded and a second later, two voices could be heard. Harry smiled and walked out of the kitchen to greet his two best friends. Hermione saw him first and basically ran into his arms. She was wearing a beautiful red and blue, longer blouse that functioned more as a dress. Her hair was simply made into a pony tail.

Ron walked over and they hugged each other as well. He hadn’t chosen to dress up as his wife had, since he was wearing plain jeans and a brown button up shirt which he had also been wearing for work today.

“It’s so nice to see you again, Harry! I feel as if we’re not seeing each other as much as we used to!” Hermione laughed as the three of them headed back to the kitchen, so Harry could finish the meal. He gave the two guests both a glass of wine, though Hermione’s was charmed water.

Harry laughed. “Well, considering that we used to see each other every day at Hogwarts, I would very much agree with you!”

“Oh, Harry, you know what I mean!” Hermione called out while her husband laughed into his wine glass. She looked at him accusingly and Harry chuckled. He was very happy that his friends were here again.

Ron smirked and pulled out a glass containing black sand from his pockets. “This is our present to you, by the way!”

Harry held out his hands and shook his head. "Ron, may I remind you that this present is actually amazing?! I have wanted to go and see that black sand for myself and now I can have some!"

Hermione laughed loudly and nodded, turning to her husband. "See? I told you we should have gone with a stone!"

Harry grinned and rolled his eyes. “Thank you so much, Hermione! But where’s the dirt you promised to bring me before you went to Iceland?!”

Once again, Hermione grinned and Ron burst out laughing. Harry felt something warm around his heart. Their tradition had gotten a life of its own. Whenever someone of them went to travel, they would always bring the weirdest presents. When Harry went to Spain, he brought some leafs with him, Ron went to Scotland on a secret Auror mission and brought sea water with him. Hermione and her parents went to Australia again and she had been the king of weird presents for a while, bringing the remains of colorful glass, which she had probably found on the floor. However, nothing had topped Harry’s present for the newlywed pair when he had presented them with camel poop and sand from the Sahara. Of course he had told them to open up the present in private and not to open up the container.

Harry added the sauce to the meatballs just as Ginny walked into the kitchen and hugged her brother and Hermione.

“How long have you been here?! Harry, why didn’t you tell me, our guests have arrived!” she smiled at them and frowned at the stone on the kitchen table.

Before she could throw it out the window, Harry had put it inside his pocket. Ginny had already once thrown out a present from his two best friends and he was not taking the risk of that happening again. Teddy had also already asked what Ron and Hermione had brought him as a present. He had started to enjoy their game as well and as soon as he was able to travel he had promised to bring Harry something like that too,

His soon-to-be-wife looked at what he was cooking and turned back to her brother, disdainful. “So, how was your holiday in Iceland? I’ve always wanted to go there!”

Hermione immediately started raving of the landscape. Ron added some explanations where it was needed, but he was also completely taken in by the beauty of that land. Harry listened carefully, while Ginny seemed to be bored after a few minutes.

Instead of letting them talk, she suddenly started talking about the dancing classes they were taking. “I can tell you, I was a little surprised seeing Malfoy in a Muggle dancing studio, but apparently it belongs to him and he’s teaching Harry. Doesn’t he, love?” Harry nodded reluctantly.

Ron listened up and turned to Harry wide-eyes. “As in… Draco Malfoy is your dancing partner?”

“How is he doing?” Hermione asked and frowned slightly.

Ginny didn’t give Harry any time in answering. “I think he’s okay. It was weird seeing him there, but we decided to give him a chance. I’m actually not being taught by him, luckily. My teacher is called Alejandro and he’s the most amazing dancing partner, I’ve ever had! He already taught me a little Salsa.”

Harry frowned, when he turned to Ginny. “I thought we weren’t doing more than two different styles? I’ve only about mastered the waltz, I can’t learn more in such a short time.”

The redhead chuckled and shook her head. “Don’t worry, love. Alejandro is just teaching me that because he thinks I’m already very good at that other stuff.”

“So…” Ron started and narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to change the dance studio, even though it’s run by Malfoy?”

“Nope!” Ginny said loudly and smiled at her brother. “Everyone deserves a second chance, that’s what Alejandro taught me.”

She grabbed some plates and walked into the dining area when Hermione looked at Harry carefully. “That’s interesting, because I think _you_ are the one who taught me that everyone deserves a second chance. And I’m pretty sure you have this mindset because of Dumbledore.”

Harry sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Just ignore that. If I wouldn’t know better, I’d say she’s in love with this Alejandro guy.” Ron wanted to say something, when Harry shrugged his shoulders once again. “But I think it’s just a crush because he can dance so much better than I can. So she’s finally got someone who matches her interests.”

If Harry would have been honest, that was exactly how he felt about Draco. His interest in dancing had caught Harry and he had wanted to be as good as the Slytherin was. As a matter of fact, Draco had always kept an eye out for him and even though nobody knew about them, except for the two of them, Harry always knew how much the Slytherin cared for him.

*

_The Great Hall was packed and Harry sat in front of his half full plate, not really interested in eating. Hermione and Ron were talking about some weird theories that he had long ago lost track of and Neville had joined them a few moments prior._

_He was just about to push his plate away, when he felt a familiar presence behind him. “Not eating, Potter? Guess the king of all wizards can get away with starving for a while, huh?”_

_Harry turned around to see a clearly concerned Draco, raising his eyebrows. For everyone around him, it must have looked as if he was being his cold sarcastic self. Hermione told him to leave Harry alone and Blaise tugged him along._

_While they sat down at the Slytherin table, Draco frowned towards Harry, who rolled his eyes and grabbed his veggies, stuffing them in his mouth, glaring at his secret boyfriend. There was a hint of a smirk on the Slytherin’s face, when he turned back to his friends._

_“Don’t take him serious, Harry! I always thought he had become a better person over the summer, but he clearly is the same idiot from before” Hermione told him._

_Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t think he’s the same idiot. Even if he’s different, I think he just enjoys saying stupid things to me.” That was partially true. The other thing was that Draco was actually concerned about how little Harry ate and he had made it his mission to make him eat more._

_When Draco looked over to him again, he had just put a fork full of potato puree into his mouth and rolled his eyes at him again. He would have liked to stick his tongue out, but since he was currently eating puree that would have probably ended in a disaster._

*

“Earth to Harry!” Hermione’s voice cut through his memory and he cleared his throat. She smiled at him, when he turned to face her. “Are the spaghetti done? We could eat then.”

Nodding quickly, he poured away the water and brought the spaghetti into the living room, where his best friends were already sitting on one side of the table and he sat down next to Ginny. She was once again lost in a story about how her dancing was so good that Alejandro had asked her if she was interested in joining his evening coursed. Apparently, she had already agreed and Harry was silently asking himself who she was dancing with.

The answer he really didn’t want to hear would have been Alejandro himself. During the whole meal, he was not meeting Hermione’s eyes and also ignored most of Ron’s question about Draco being his dance partner. Thanks to Ginny who couldn’t stop talking about Alejandro, it did go mostly unnoticed.


	6. Weekend Wonder

“Good evening, Harry! Look who I found on the way here!” Ginny turned around and presented to him Alejandro. She was joined by the guy with the red curly hair Harry had seen when he had entered the dance studio for the first time alone. Even then he had thought that this guy had somehow seemed off...

Harry frowned slightly. He had been waiting in this restaurant for fifteen minutes and his fiancé showed up with her dancing instructor? He really wasn’t hoping that the two of them had a thing going, because if they had, it would have been the most unromantic story ever written.

Well, Alejandro also looked a little too well dressed for just having met him somewhere outside. He was wearing a smooth almost silk tuxedo and a red tie. It looked at lot like the Gryffindor’s color, though Harry decided not to say anything. That, however, didn’t stop him from thinking and wondering whether or not Ginny was actually having an affair with her dancing instructor.

“It’s not a big deal that he wants to join us, right?” Ginny asked and smiled her sweetest smile. Harry sighed, but shook his head.

From second to second, it was getting more and more obvious that Ginny actually liked Alejandro very much. Frowning quietly, Harry sipped his water and waited for the waiter to bring the other menus. He had already ordered some water and looked at the menu twice, knowing exactly what to order.

“We’re having a red…” he had just wanted to order their usual wine, when Ginny interrupted him.

“Actually, we’re taking the white Tenuta Rapitalà Grand Cru Chardonnay, thank you!” She smiled at the waiter, who left to bring them the wine from Sicily, while Harry frowned at her.

He was just about to ask her why they suddenly changed their wine habits, when she smiled at him. “Oh, Harry, Alejandro doesn’t enjoy red wine, right?”

Alejandro nodded and turned to him. When he started speaking, Harry had always thought that his voice was smooth and nice; however, it didn’t match his appearance and more his name. “Don’t worry, Harry. I won’t destroy your happy evening. Ginny just invited me along and wouldn’t take no for an answer.” Of course she wouldn't. 

His raucous voice made Harry frown and the fact that he had just addressed him as ‘Harry’ immediately without actually having been given the permission from Harry himself started to get on his nerves. He had actually started to look forward for this date night, because had wanted to ask Ginny about her relationship with Alejandro. Now, it would be weird to ask her about her dancing teacher.

In fact, the longer they spent together, the more Harry started to hate Alejandro. His laughter sounded as if there was a house falling into itself and his table manners were worse than Harry’s. And that meant something, since Harry had never actually learnt any, having lived under the stairs for the better part of his childhood. And there were no manners under the stairs.

The dance instructor was talking about his job very much and he even complemented Ginny for her dance moves more than he had needed to. Suddenly, Harry was listening up and frowned at the two of them.

“I mean, your tango moves need some polish, other than that I would love to see…” Alejandro smiled at her and Harry interrupted them rather quickly.

“Tango? I thought we weren’t doing any tango? We agreed on Waltz and if I would get the moves, Rumba.”

The dance teacher laughed and Harry frowned at the sound of it. “Harry, listen: Any man needs to have a woman who can tango. It’s sex on the dance floor. Studies show that tango dancing women can last longer in bed!”

Harry frowned at Alejandro. “Which studies?”

“Just studies, my friend! Believe me, you’ll thank me on your wedding night” he winked at Harry, which made him shake his head and get up.

Turning to Ginny, who had been following the discussion with wide dreamy eyes, he said quietly. “I’m not feeling very well. I’ll be heading home.”

“No problem, Harry. I’ll pay for it, once we’re done here.”

Harry frowned and waited for a second, before he realized that she wasn’t going to follow him, rather sit in that restaurant, talking to her… dance instructor. On their date night. He nodded at both of them, grabbed his jacket and walked outside.

Unsure of what to do now, he headed to the dance studio, hoping to meet Draco there and ask for his opinion if Alejandro was maybe trying to come onto his future wife. As luck would have it, Draco sat outside, enjoying the warm late summer night. He was sitting on the floor, leaning at the building and was once again wearing Harry’s hoddie. On his phone, which he was looking at, was a rock song playing and he tapped his feet to the beat.

When he looked up and saw Harry approaching, he frowned. “We don’t have any lessons today, do we? I mean, it’s Saturday. Next lesson is next week.”

“I’m not here for a lesson, Draco” he sighed and sat down on the floor next to the Slytherin. “I wanted to know if you think it’s possible that your dance teacher is having an affair with my wife-to-be.”

Draco turned to face Harry and shook his head. “Alejandro? Don’t worry about him. He’s a ladies’ man. They love him, which is why they come back. No one ever reacted to any of his moves, though. They’re also the worst ones. He might look good, but his character is just terrible.”

“I know what you mean.” Harry rolled his eyes and explained quickly, when Draco frowned at him. “He just called me Harry without me actually having introduced myself. And his laughter…”

The Slytherin chuckled and shook his head. “Oh yeah. First time I heard that, I was hiding under a table because I was afraid that the building would fall down on top of me.”

Harry narrowed his eyes, but was smirking slightly. Draco shoved his shoulder against him and smiled. “But jokes aside, Harry, I wouldn’t be scared to lose your wife. He’s a good enough dance teacher, not a decent human being.”

“Why would you even hire such a man?”

Draco shrugged his shoulders. “He said he needed a place to work since his parents had thrown him out for studying dance and not… whatever his parents had wanted him to study. I felt pity, so I hired him.”

They were quietly looking down the narrow street that seemed to be dead by now and the clouds at the sky were starting to blush slightly by the leaving sun. Harry felt comfortable, sitting so close to Draco and just being able to talk to him. It reminded him a lot of Hogwarts, sitting in secluded spots, talking about life and whatever came to mind.

“I have a question, Draco.”

When he looked over to his … well, ex, the man nodded to silently tell him to continue. Taking a deep breath, Harry turned to face the street again. “Why aren’t you mad at me? I mean, you should be throwing stinging hexes at me, yelling at me to leave and everything. You know, after what…”

“After what happened at Hogwarts?” Draco finished his question and Harry nodded quietly.

Sighing slightly, the Slytherin leaned his head at the wall and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, Harry. I can’t explain it myself, but I’m not angry anymore.”

Once again, they were quiet and Harry wasn’t sure whether it was the comfortable silence from before or a new weird kind of silence. Suddenly, Draco turned towards him and frowned.

“Harry, now that you’ve asked me something, can I ask you something personal as well?”

He looked at Draco and frowned, but nodded. So the blond wizard continued quietly. “Why do you want to marry Ginny? She seems to have her own world in which she lives and it doesn’t appear to be your world.”

Harry looked back and bit his lower lip. That was a good question, but he didn't feel like answering it. He got up quickly and turned to a rather surprised Slytherin. “Draco, you have lost the right to ask me such things when you left Hogwarts without talking to me or telling me anything.”

He was aware of his rather weird character, having asked Draco something personal but refusing to answer something like that himself? It didn't really match what the Slytherin had done for him. However, he just wasn't ready to face Draco or Ginny with the answer to that question. In reality though... Harry just wasn't ready to face himself with such an answer, since it could possibly hurt him even more.

With that he turned away and walked down the street, ignoring the one time Draco was calling after him. He would have turned back if the Slytherin had called after him three times. But not once.

*

_Harry sat down on the opposite side of the table and grinned at Draco. “I’m telling you; you need to try it with actual chocolate!”_

_The Slytherin sniffed and shook his head. “Why? And you know what; I have another ‘why’-question: Why are you sitting over there? I would much rather have you close to me so I could kiss you whenever I want to.”_

_Harry blushed slightly and rolled his eyes. “We’re in Hogsmeade, Draco. There are a lot of Hogwarts student around. What do you think they’re saying when they’re seeing us?”_

_Suddenly, Harry jumped from a foot feeling its way up his legs. “Maybe that you look a little tense” Draco offered and smirked at him._

_“Draco, don’t do that.”_

_The foot slowly made its way up to his knee, where he followed up Harry’s leg, carefully. Draco was still smirking at him and sipped a little of his beer. “That is because you’re not sitting next to me. Wouldn’t you rather be kissed than getting off in the middle of the Three Broomsticks?”_

_“Draco, I’m warning you…” Harry tried his best to glare at his boyfriend, though the foot between his legs was making it hard for him to think of anything but that._

_“Hm? What do you want to do against that?” Draco asked, while he pushed a little further and Harry gasped for air, feeling his foot massaging the erection in his trousers. He held onto his drink for dear life, glaring at Draco._

_Before he could say anything, they were interrupted by Pansy and Blaise sitting down next to Draco and he withdrew his foot immediately. “You guys are also enjoying the children free Hogsmeade?” Blaise asked and turned to face Harry, who was trying to hide his red face._

_“Clearly” Draco grinned. “I ran into Potter here and we decided to call it truce for today.”_

_Pansy snickered. “Are you trying to find more things on how to torment him in the next few weeks?” she wanted to know. Draco smirked and winked at Harry, so that his friends couldn’t see it._

_“Definitely.”_

_Harry was already feeling way too hot and bothered, when suddenly Hermione and Ron were standing next to their table._

_“What is going on here?” Hermione asked and looked around. “It that some kind of Slytherin intervention?!” She sat down next to Harry and Ron patted his shoulder, sitting down next to his girlfriend._

_Draco smirked and nodded. “Why don’t you go and grab something to drink for your friends, Potter?” Harry rolled his eyes, but Ron was already on his feet again._

_“He doesn’t need to do that, Malfoy. We can do that on our own.” The two Gryffindors left and were followed by Draco’s two friends to the bar._

_Draco chuckled. “Well, guess you were right about not kissing. I still would like to do that right now. Just imagine how…”_

_Harry shook his head. “Draco, no. I’m already imagining way too much and I’m not sure when I can get up from here ever again! You might have gotten me stuck here for all eternity.”_

_The Slytherin grinned and looked at the bar. “Everyone has their backs to you; you can just quickly run to the bathroom and take care of your little problem.”_

_“I hate you for this” Harry said, glaring at him._

_Smirking, Draco winked at him, as he got up. “Think of me, while you’re getting yourself off, darling.”_


	7. One small dancing Step, one big Step towards Redemption

“You know, Harry, for all your talking; you’re acting exactly like you told me not to act.”

Draco stood at the front door of the dancing studio, looking at Harry, who was feeling very uncomfortable. In fact, he had felt uncomfortable for two days now. He had actually been debating whether or not he should pretend to be sick, so he couldn’t go to their dance lessons, but he had decided to face his fears now rather than later.

Harry knew what Draco was referring to: Him walking away before giving Draco time to say something. Looking to the floor, Harry was at loss for words. He had no idea what to say to his former boyfriend, for whom he still had feelings. Strong feelings.

“I’m sorry for leaving you at Hogwarts, Harry.” It was quiet, when Harry looked up at Draco, he smiled softly. “I just… I really was in love with you and hearing that you didn’t feel the same way about me, it freaked me out. I couldn’t even think about staying at Hogwarts, around you, without getting a panic attack! So I left.”

“You should have waited a few more seconds, Draco.”

The Slytherin frowned and raised his eyebrows. Harry bit his lower lips, but decided to tell him what was going through his mind. He wanted to tell him for a while now, what was so different now? “I said I loved you too. I just needed to find the courage to tell you that. Since all my life, when someone was close to me, they would always die. And leave me.”

Draco stood still and stared at him with wide eyes. “And then I did. I left you…”

Harry nodded slightly. They were quiet for a while, before Draco sighed and walked through the hallway, motioning Harry to follow him. “We need to learn some more dancing, Harry. This week, we’re going to learn how to rumba.”

The Slytherin was already starting a song which Harry hadn’t heard before, when he entered the small dance room. He could feel his stomach rumble and frowned for a second. When was the last time he had eaten something? He couldn’t think too long about it, since Draco was already standing in the middle of the room, waiting for Harry.

“This song’s called Song from a secret Garden by Secret Garden” he explained and smiled. “What do you know about rumba?”

Harry sighed, placed his jacket on the ground by the door and walked closer. “I know nothing about rumba, Draco and you should have realized that.”

Draco grinned and nodded. “Oh I know. But miracles happen every day, Harry.” He smirked, but started to explain the steps for the dance rather quickly. “The good news, Harry: it’s the same step system as the waltz, so you already know how to move. The rhythm for this step is slow-quick-quick. Let’s try it.”

Once they were finally done with the theory, the Slytherin started to explain again. “Well, the dancers of rumba usually embody a sassy, smooth, and sensual demeanor.” The Slytherin smirked. “The move set sadly for you is very particular in the details; however, the most important part is keeping a connection with your partner. The toes should be at a slight diagonal to allow us to achieve our favorite hip movement, Cuban motion, just like in Salsa.”

“Draco, I don’t dance Salsa! How am I supposed to master rumba?”

The blond wizard chuckled. “Harry, you need to start somewhere. We can as well start with rumba. Fun fact actually, rumba is the slowest of the competitive international latin styles! Which means, you should be fine!” By the end of the hour, Draco grinned at him “See, you can dance!”

“Yeah, but now I only need to get the moves up to speed, so I don’t look like a music box that’s out of battery” Harry answered, while rolling his eyes.

Draco laughed and shook his head. “It’s a start, Harry. Maybe I have to try some more untraditional ways of teaching you. That always seemed to…” he suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence, his eyes wide open, and walked out of the room rather briskly.

*

_“Harry, you’re an abysmal dancer!” Draco rolled his eyes, when Harry had once again stepped on his toe. Harry turned red and looked at the floor._

_However, instead of telling him what to do better, Draco leaned in and kissed him softly. Harry threw his arms around the Slytherin’s neck and pressed him closer. The kiss ended way too early, though Harry would have liked it to go on until eternity… so really anything was too early._

_“I have an idea, how to teach you dancing” Draco smirked. He let go of Harry and finally opened up the small container he had brought with him. Inside was a treacle tart and Harry’s eyes grew big. It looked so damn delicious!_

_The Slytherin placed it on a small table and pushed Harry away from his favorite dessert. “Here’s the deal, love: If you can dance with me for a full minute without stepping on my toe or making a beginner’s mistake, you can get a piece of the treacle tart. We’re dancing until you’ve eaten everything. If you don’t make a mistake for five minutes, you can have everything at once!”_

_Harry smirked at Draco. “You’re on, darling!”_

*

It was currently half past ten and Harry grinded his teeth. He got up from the chair he had been sitting on for the past two hours and paid for his drinks. He had wanted to eat something once his fiancé would arrive. However, Ginny had stood him up once again. He couldn’t stop himself from wondering whether or not she was with Alejandro. Maybe even in his bed…

He walked around Muggle London without any goal, when he suddenly found himself in front of Draco’s dance studio. He sighed and pushed the door open. It actually opened, but Harry hesitated. Why was he here? What did he want from being here? The wind had started to grow stronger, so he entered the dark studio and walked through the hallway. All the rooms were black, but the one at the very end had light shining through the glass door.

Harry walked closer and heard music playing softly. Surprised by the knowledge about the waltz he had gained while Draco had thought him at Hogwarts, Harry actually recognized the song. This was Grammofon by Eugen Doga.

Stopping at the door, he saw Draco moving around lightly as if he was in his element. He had always looked like that when he had been dancing for Harry’s eyes only. And he had enjoyed it every time. Not only because it had almost always ended in a heavy make out session, but because Draco was the most beautiful human being Harry had ever seen.

He opened the glass door, to get a better look on Draco, who had gotten significantly better at dancing since their days at Hogwarts and looked clearly taken in by the music playing around him.

There was a small smile on Harry’s lips, as he watched the Slytherin do a rather complicated jump, before rolling on the floor and getting up, moving his shoulders with the beat of the music. It seemed to be more ballet with a little inspiration into modern dance than anything else. When he threw his head towards the sky, he froze and looked back directly at him.

“Harry. How long have you been standing there? I’m sorry, did I not hear a call or something?” Draco asked and walked towards him, frowning slightly.

Shaking his head, Harry leaned his head then at the frame. “No, you haven’t missed a call. I just didn’t know where else to go.”

Draco nodded and smiled slightly. “My door’s always open. As you know I’m helping former addicts and they sometimes also don’t know where else to go, so they come here.”

“You’re a much better human being that any other people I know.”

Chuckling slightly, Draco shook his head. He was now standing so close that Harry could smell his natural strawberry scent. They smiled at each other and stood there silently for a long time, before Harry looked back at the floor, biting his lips.

“Do you remember what you’ve asked me on Saturday?” he asked quietly.

Draco nodded and was just about to open his mouth to say something, when Harry started to speak again.”I’m marrying Ginny, because she told me to. That’s the only reason. Well, and because I could finally get Teddy.”

They were quiet again, until Draco placed his hand on Harry’s shoulder and squeezed softly. “Since that is the logical step after being in a relationship for the past seven years?”

Harry bit his lips and nodded. “I have no idea what I’m doing, Draco. I feel as if I’m lost and I don’t have a place to turn to.”

“You can always come here, Harry. I want you to know that” Draco smiled at him warmly. “A lot of people get cold feet before they’re marrying. It’s just part of the game. Don’t let it overtake you.”

He seemed to contemplate something, before grabbing Harry’s hand and dragging him into the middle of the room. “You’re getting a dance lesson free of charge, Harry. Just close your eyes and feel.”

Harry followed what Draco had said and felt the blond wizard moving with him to the music. It reminded him of Hogwarts and the countless times they had spent whole afternoons that way, until his feet were hurting and Draco had made him sit on his lap, kissing him senseless.

“You need to get back into contact with your feelings” Draco said quietly next to Harry’s ears and it sent shivers down his spine, which he hoped went unnoticed by the Slytherin.

They danced for so long that Harry had actually lost the time and was just enjoying the closeness of the two of them. Once again, there was the beautiful smell of strawberries surrounding him. He let his head fall on the shoulder of the Slytherin, who seemed to just let it happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Secret Garden - Song of a Secret Garden](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrgqZWaLZz0)
> 
> [Eugen Doga - Grammofon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p0pe-1_xUk)


	8. Dancing to forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can honestly say that this flashback here (even though I kind of like all of them) is one of my favorite xD  
Which one do you like the most? I mean, there are about eight more to come :D

And more wedding preparations were happening. Harry had actually thought that it was all done, but no. Ginny had now sent some invitations to the press, even though Harry had made her promise not to. There were flowers to look at, colors to choose and the aroma of the wedding cake to figure out. Ginny had already chosen strawberry which Harry actually didn’t want, but his fiancé apparently didn’t care. Strawberries were forever on going to remind him of Draco.

*

_“I said, eat!” Draco held out a strawberry in front of Harry’s mouth and he turned his head away. Draco grabbed him and pushed him on his back, before lying in top of him. “Eat!”_

_The strawberry was in front of his mouth, so that Harry actually couldn’t say anything without the berry landing in his mouth. Draco raised his eyebrows and narrowed them a second after. _

_“Potter, I saw you not eating anything in the Great Hall. Either you eat the things I brought or next time you’re not eating, I’ll sit down next to you and force feed you every last piece!”_

_Harry widened his eyes. “You wouldn’t… hmp…”_

_The strawberry landed in his mouth and Draco pressed his hand in front of Harry’s mouth, so he couldn’t spit it out. Rolling his eyes, Harry ate the berry and shook his head. Before he could say anything, however, Draco answered immediately._

_“I sure as hell would, Harry. Merlin be my witness!”_

_“A dead man can’t be your witness, darling” Harry snickered, which shortly turned into loud laughing, as Draco was tickling him. He smirked at Harry and kissed him, his hands roaming through his hair._

_Harry kept his eyes closed, with a dumb smile in his lips and stretched under Draco. The Slytherin kissed his neck and whispered sweet nothings in his ear. Before he presented him with something else to eat. “My threat still stands, love. If you don’t eat all of this now, I will be sitting at the Gryffindor table tomorrow.”_

*

His dancing had definitely approved, Harry was sure of that. Ginny on the other hand had a different source of information.

“Alejandro tells me that you’re dancing still hasn’t been good! Harry, you need to step up your game! I want us to be the most perfect dancers out there!” Ginny threw her hands in the air and Harry was a second away from telling her that she should be dancing with Alejandro at their wedding.

Harry wanted to grab a piece of toast, when Ginny took it away and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have to go to work, Harry? I can keep planning the rest here. We only have the seating arrangement left, I believe. If you want to tell me where someone has to sit, please wait for my full work that will be finished by tonight.”

Sighing, Harry decided to just apparate to work and finish a cold case that had been lying on top of his desk for a while now. That would at least give him another few quiet moments with Ron and one or two of the new Aurors.

Walking to his desk, he saw Ron already working hard. He smiled and greeted his best friend.

“Hey mate! Long time no see, is Ginny keeping you busy?” Ron grinned and placed the folder into the proper place on the huge wall of finished cases. He had apparently finished another case and was just sending it to their boss for a final evaluation.

Harry chuckled and rolled his eyes. “I wish. Want to head out with two new Aurors and investigate a grey case?”

Ron nodded and knocked at the door of a small office next to the wall. “Hello June, we’re looking at a grey case, any Aurors you could give us for some experience?”

June, an old witch who had definitely been working there when the Ministry had been founded, smiled at Ron and called two names. Jeremy Rockwell and Daniela Fox walked out of the room, interested and at the same incredibly bored.

“I’m so glad to be out of that room!” Jeremy sighed and shook his head. “So, what are we looking at?”

Harry walked towards his desk and grabbed the grey folder on the bottom. He handed it to Jeremy and Daniela who walked towards the small room where they were building their case. Ron and Harry followed, interested in what the two of them could find out about a robbery in Diagon Alley a few years back.

Later that day, when Jeremy and Daniela had come back from Diagon Alley unsuccessful, Harry had walked back to the dance studio; Ginny had told him that she was having another dance lesson later that day. Alejandro had apparently decided to do those more frequent. If Harry wasn’t already suspicious of those two, now he would have definitely started with it. He was the one that needed more dancing lessons, not Ginny.

Draco was already waiting in the room and Harry suddenly saw black for a second. ‘That was scary’, he thought to himself, while he placed his jacket at the door and walked closer to the Slytherin. His smile was beautiful and he nodded at Harry. 

“So, today I want us to look at the waltz again, that is going to be your wedding dance alone on the dance floor. So if you’re making mistakes with the rumba, it’s okay, since others will be dancing as well. Not with the waltz” Draco explained while starting another Waltz. This one was called Over the Waves Waltz by Juventino Rosas. However, somehow it had started sounding exactly like all the others...

Harry nodded, but felt something sour traveling up his throat. What was going on? Was he about to puke? He hadn’t eaten anything and… The moment, Draco turned back to him and wanted to start dancing, Harry felt everything around him turning and his vision was suddenly black.

~

Opening his eyes again, he was laying on a couch in a very small kitchen, Draco sitting in his vision at the kitchen table, looking at him with narrowed eyes. Once he saw Harry opening his eyes, he shook his head. “Harry, when was the last time you ate something? And don’t try to lie to me, I’ve invented the spell that would tell me” his voice sounded very concerned and Harry sighed.

So when was the last time he had eaten something? “I think two days ago. I waited for Ginny to show up for a date and she never showed, so I went back home.”

Draco frowned. “And you didn’t feel your stomach trying to get your attention?” Harry simply shook his head, which made the Slytherin sigh. “Please tell me that your wife knows about the problems you have with food, Harry. You need someone who keeps an eye on your eating habits.”

“We’re not at Hogwarts anymore, Draco. I can look after myself!” Harry wanted to get up from the couch, when pain hit him in his stomach and he fell back into the dirty yellow couch, groaning. He had actually wanted to make a point in sitting up and showing Draco that he was adult enough not to need him… His stomach had betrayed him and somehow he was happy about it.

The Slytherin looked at him again, suddenly sitting down next to him on the couch. Harry could feel the warmth radiating off of Draco. “There’s a pizza delivery coming and I want you to eat everything. Otherwise, I’ll make you eat every piece of it. You need to get something into your stomach, Harry, especially since you’re doing hard work.”

Harry sighed and closed his eyes. “It’s usually not a problem, Draco.” When he opened his eyes again, for a second he thought that the Draco sitting on the couch looked extremely like the younger Draco from his memories. Concerned but at the same time incredibly love-struck.

However, Draco looked away and once he turned back to him, his expression was normal again. “Well, don’t faint in my dancing studio or you’re making it my problem.”

The pizza delivery came and while Draco was gone to pay him, Harry sat up, trying his hardest to ignore the pain in his stomach and the black dots in his eyes. Draco walked in and the smell of salami pizza hit Harry very suddenly. He turned to look at the Slytherin a little surprised that he had remembered what his favorite pizza was. On the other hand, Harry could win every quiz about the blond wizard. His favorite one was Quattro Formaggio.

“Eat.” Draco placed it down in front of Harry and sat down next to him. “Either you’ll eat it or I’ll force feed you, Harry.”

A little surprised about the threat, which sounded a lot like the threat he had always told him at Hogwarts, Harry decided not to chance it and ate a piece of pizza. His stomach was grumbling and Draco smirked slightly.

They stayed quiet for a while in which Harry had eaten about half of the pizza, until Draco grabbed a slice as well and Harry turned to him, frowning. “Hey, that’s my pizza!”

“I paid for it” Draco smirked and as if to bring home his point, took a bigger bite than he could swallow. Harry started laughing and while the Slytherin fought with the pizza, he pushed Harry away, which made him slide off the couch and land on the floor, still laughing.

When Draco finally got his pizza down, Harry had calmed down enough to finish his piece. He was still chuckling a little from time to time, but he ate it fast enough.

With one single move, the door of the small kitchen was opened and Ginny stood there with Alejandro. Both Harry and Draco frowned at the couple, as they walked closer, grinning at the two men.

“Well, at least now I see why you’re not getting better with dancing, Harry” Ginny smirked. “You’re eating pizza during your dance lessons!”

Harry had just wanted to say something, when Draco cut in. “Do you even know about your future husband’s problem, Weasley?”

Ginny narrowed her eyes, when she turned to face Draco. “His problem is that he spends too much time with you, Malfoy. If you weren’t his dancing teacher, he would have already mastered all three dances I wanted and had moved on to a bigger and better dancing studio.”

“You don’t seem to mind us staying here” Harry said with a neutral expression.

Ginny smiled at him and turned to Alejandro, for just a second, before facing him again. “I’m doing this for us, Harry. Our future together means more to me than anything.”

Draco huffed and shook his head. “Shouldn’t it be the person that’s supposed to mean more to the other than anything else?”

“Shut it Malfoy!” Ginny turned to face him and glared at him. “You have no right of speech in this relationship. Harry is going to be the most perfect husband and I will be the loveliest bride anyone has ever seen.”

The pair left the kitchen again and Harry shook his head. Yes, something there was definitely fishy. He didn’t like how Ginny was so close to her dancing partner and from the looks of it, neither did Draco.

“You know what, Harry? I’ll change my mind: Alejandro is almost definitely having an affair you’re your future wife.”

Harry sighed, got up to sit on the couch again and shook his head. “Yeah. I’ll get back to you on whether or not I’m actually surprised by that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Juventino Rosas – Over the Waves Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2YvhEv7ykM)


	9. Mirrors on the Wall

_”Looking good, Potter” Malfoy said while he passed him and the girls he had been walking with, snickered. Harry narrowed his eyes and looked back._

_Ron sighed dramatically and Hermione stopped as well. “Don’t take him serious, Harry. I have no idea what his problem is” the redhead said shaking his head._

_Harry stopped dead in his track, when the two girls walked straight and Malfoy had turned left and closed the door to a classroom. “I’ll be right back” Harry called after his friends, when he walked towards the classroom. He heard Ron calling something after him and Hermione yelling at him not to do something stupid._

_He hadn’t intended to do anything stupid. His feelings had just told him something and he couldn’t really place it. So, he wanted to find out what Malfoy was up to. Or rather, why he would try and insult him in this kind of new way._

_When he opened the door, Malfoy looked up rather surprised, but smirked a mere second later. “Hello, Potter. Anything I could help you with?”_

_“Actually yes. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve meant by what you’ve said and why your friends have been laughing at it?” Harry asked and narrowed his eyes._

_Malfoy looked at him from top to bottom and shrugged his shoulders. “I meant… that you’re looking actually rather good. I don’t know why my so called friends would laugh at that, honestly.”_

_Harry frowned and raised his eyebrows. “You’re having me on, don’t you?” he stopped and narrowed his eyes, when he suddenly realized something. “Are you what… gay or something?”_

_The Slytherin smiled weakly. “As a matter of fact, I am.” His honesty had thrown Harry off course and he had no idea what to do next._

_Suddenly, Malfoy was really close and he felt his lips on his. Without thinking, he returned the kiss, pulled him closer and deeper. There was a sudden scent of berries surrounding Harry and he felt as if the weight of the past few weeks had fallen away. Until the Slytherin pulled away with a horrified expression on his face. They stared at each other for a few seconds, until Malfoy grabbed his stuff and left the room in a hurry._

*

“Draco, can you please take away the mirrors?” Harry had his eyes closed, having gone through a particular bad day today, he wasn’t feeling up to looking at himself in the mirror. The Auror training had started today and all the newbies had wanted to hear as many information from him as their brain could handle. Also, Ron had needed to be somewhere else, so there was no stopping them. Normally, he was the one that could keep everyone in track, not today. And then there was also Teddy who for two days now had been raving about getting the opportunity to live with him, to be his actual son, when he had married Ginny…

He felt Draco’s presence in front of him and opened his eyes slowly. The Slytherin looked at him carefully as if he was evaluating him. “Are you having your panic attacks again?”

Harry shook his head. “Not for a while now. But I haven’t looked into a mirror for… a while now” he admitted.

Draco’s hand was on his shoulder and Harry inhaled sharply and looked him directly in his eyes. They were warm and full of compassion. Draco knew exactly what his problems were with mirrors. He was the only person Harry had ever told about the mirror of Erised (apart from Ron) and he had also told him about the mirror part Sirius had gifted him. Next to that, he had always had problems accepting his body form. He had always wanted to look different, no matter how he looked.

“You’re doing well, Harry. These mirrors have been here for the past three weeks and you haven’t complained about them. I would say that’s a success, right?” Draco asked and smiled softly.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I would still rather like it if we wouldn’t be surrounded by mirrors upon mirrors.”

He looked around and saw himself trembling slightly in one of the countless mirrors. The Slytherin had seen it too, since he was suddenly hugged by the other man. The warmth of another human being surprised him and he wanted to return this hug so badly, but he knew he shouldn’t. Not really. No matter how much his heart was aching and hurting.

“What are you…”

“Shhhh” Draco whispered in his ears, which made Harry yearn for his love even more. “It’s going to be okay, Harry. You’re doing great!”

Following his instincts, he hid his face in the crook of the Slytherin’s neck and hugged him back. Harry suddenly realized that he was way past a crush. This was an old flame starting to burn brightly once again. Draco was the most caring person he had ever met and not only towards him, but in general.

The Slytherin was rubbing his back and kept whispering nonsensical words into his ears. Harry felt himself relax a little and as if Draco had sensed that, he let go slightly.

“Look at yourself, Harry” he said and walked around him so that Harry could look directly into a mirror. He looked extremely pale and not well. He had definitely not eaten good enough in the last few days and his clothes were once again way too big.

Harry wanted to turn away, when Draco massaged his shoulders and shook his head. “You’re picturing the little Harry Potter again, sweetheart. You need to see _yourself_ in this mirror, not a memory. Try again.”

Taking a deep breath, Harry opened his eyes once more. The man standing in the mirror was staring back at him, a little pale, yes. But the clothes were fitting and matching, he looked well fed and muscular. With that picture, Harry relaxed slightly.

Draco nodded and nuzzled into his neck. Apparently, somehow he had lost his concentration and Harry felt goose bumps all over his body. He turned around and looked at Draco with his half closed eyes.

Without thinking, he pressed his lips onto Draco’s and kissed him softly. It wasn’t passionate or deep, but soft and lovingly. Somehow, Draco had the most amazing kiss, no matter how you kissed him. Within a second, the Slytherin pulled back suddenly and looked at Harry horrified.

“I’m so sorry, Harry. I… That… I’m just…” he stammered around, before bolting out of the room.

Harry waited for a few minutes, but his dancing teacher never resurfaced. So, he walked out thoughtfully. Draco had made him feel like an actual human being. He had never let Ginny see this side of him. What would she do? How would she react, when he told her that he couldn’t look into mirrors again?

He traveled home and surprisingly found Ginny sitting at the living room table, going over the list of everyone they had invited. Harry sighed internally when he saw the three parchment rolls Ginny was skimming through. Hadn’t they agreed on one list?

“Ginny, I have a problem!” Harry said quietly and bit his lower lip. His future wife looked up and raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to keep talking. “I… I have some problems with looking into a mirror. I just keep picturing myself as a child and…”

“For Merlin’s sake, Harry, black out the mirrors if it’s haunting you too much!” Ginny rolled her eyes. “That way you never have to think about any of this. You’re already looking as if you never see a mirror anyway, so what would be the difference honestly.”

Harry stopped dead in his track dumbfounded. Ginny didn’t really care about him. He had wanted to open up about a deep childhood trauma and she basically told him to ignore it, since he probably couldn’t do anything right anyway.

He just wanted to say something, when Ginny looked up and smiled at him. “Oh, love, I’m sorry, but we can’t talk about this more right now!” She got up and grabbed her bag. “I’m meeting Alejandro for another dance lesson.”

“It’s ten in the evening, Ginny.”

His soon-to-be-wife nodded. “He had a lot to do tonight, so I offered to meet him now.”

Harry frowned. “Would you like me to bring you there and…”

“No!” Ginny quickly said and smiled, before she added: “You were there already. No need in going there twice in one day, right?”

She turned on her heels and was gone in a matter of seconds. Harry narrowed his eyes. Did she think that he was blind? Well, yes he needed glasses but that had nothing to do with the fact that she was behaving very weird around him. And she kept talking about Alejandro…

Harry groaned and fell into his chair. He rubbed his temples and just as he wanted to start the TV, he remembered the kiss. Draco had always watched him like a hawk. Nothing had slipped his attention and Harry had always liked that about him. Even though most of the times, he had hated him for it, since he had actually realized way before anybody else, that he had a few childhood traumas.

Since he was already comparing Ginny and Draco, Harry decided to go deeper and look at how differently they were working with his problems. She had basically ignored the topic of Harry’s eating problem when Draco had talked about it and made fun of him eating pizza rather than training. The Slytherin on the other hand had actually bought pizza for him to eat something. And Harry knew that the spell he had invented had just been because he had been lying about having eaten so many times, that the Slytherin actually invented said spell at Hogwarts within two months.

The next problem Harry had been talking about with the two of them was the mirrors. Ginny did have an easy fix – black out all the mirrors. However, Draco’s help was a little longer lasting: He had helped him see the actual him, not the boy that he had been. And then that kiss…

Harry sighed and closed his eyes. Why had he never started to look for Draco, once he had left Hogwarts?! That man was everything to him. Yes, Ginny had been there, when he was in another low at Christmas, but that low only happened because he was missing Draco like crazy.

And this feeling had never left. Seeing him in that dance studio after so many years had only deepened his need for the Slytherin. And now he was getting married to Ginny, who from the looks of it had already found another man that was making her happy.

He inhaled deeply and decided to grab the newest Prophet to see whatever had been written there with which he could distract his racing mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys
> 
> Coming Thursday, I'm not sure I can upload, since my internet is being... looked at or something. It'll take almost a full week, so I might not be able to give you another chapter until the 14th. I will try to upload at least 2x next week, but since I'm not sure... you'll get 2 new chapters tomorrow. I hope you're okay with this. Nothing I can change, really :(
> 
> Enjoy this chapter!  
\- Jolly


	10. Dance your Problems away

A knock at the front door made Harry look up from the book he was currently reading. He frowned, but nevertheless got up and opened the door. There stood Hermione and Ron, both looking very uncomfortable and sad.

“Hey guys, why the long faces? Come on in!” He stepped back and they came inside, very carefully as if they were walking on glass.

Hermione looked over at Ron and bit her lips, before facing Harry. “Harry, I know it’s only three weeks until your wedding, but we need to tell you what we’ve seen tonight!”

Frowning slightly, Harry wasn’t sure in which direction this would go, when he realized that he was home alone. Ginny was somewhere and judging from the looks of his two best friends… Alejandro wasn’t too far away.

Ron cleared his throat and opened his mouth a few times as if he was a fish out of water. Hermione finally freed him from the torture and started talking, even though she looked uncomfortable as well. “We saw Ginny with another man! They were very intimate and…”

“Mate, my sister’s cheating on you!” Ron interrupted her and looked at Harry with wide eyes.

Harry looked from one person to the other and sighed. “I know. Well, no. I don’t know, but I figured. She has always left for her dancing lessons on the weirdest times and I always figured that she approved of Alejandro’s dancing much more than of mine.”

Hermione looked at him shocked and even Ron’s eyes wandered around the room, looking for some stability and clearly lost in thought.

“That man is Alejandro? Her dancing teacher?” Hermione asked and turned to look at Ron.

“Well, does the man you guys saw have red, curly hair, blue eyes and an earring on the right ear?” Harry asked and looked back at Hermione, who nodded hesitantly. “Then it’s her dancing teacher, yes.”

Neither Hermione nor Ron had any idea how to react, until Harry smiled at them. It was a sad smile, Harry was aware of it. “I think I’ve known the two of them were having an affair for two weeks now.” He sighed and looked to the floor again.

“And you didn’t do anything against it?” Ron asked and frowned. “Mate, she’s your wife! Future wife, I mean” Harry looked up to see Hermione looking at her husband judgingly.

She turned to him and frowned slightly. “Harry, why didn’t you do anything? You should have tried to talk to Ginny, make her understand that what she’s doing is wrong!”

‘Because there’s someone else who makes me feel more at home than any other person on this entire earth’ Harry thought, but bit his lips. He was not going to tell Ron or Hermione that he would have probably had an affair as well if Draco would have been up for that. However, the Slytherin had a huge moral code and he knew that even kissing him, when he was supposed to marry Ginny in a few weeks, was messing with that moral code extremely. Still, Harry wouldn’t have minded another kiss.

“Harry?” Hermione asked carefully.

“Maybe I’ll talk to her when she’s back from her ‘dancing lesson’” Harry said and smiled weakly. It had the desired effect of his best friends leaving after a few more encouraging words.

Grabbing his jacket, Harry left the house as well. He wasn’t planning on confronting Ginny right now; he needed to talk to Draco. He had always been his moral compass as well and he knew he could almost certainly need it now. More than anything else.

The dance studio was lit up and in front of it were a lot of people standing, talking. Harry suddenly realized that it was Tuesday and Draco was having some kind of meeting for former addicts. Before he could turn around, the Slytherin walked out of the group and came towards him.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Draco asked and looked at him, clearly concerned.

Harry simply shook his head and bit his lower lip. Draco stared at him for a second, before he turned around and motioned him to follow him. When he walked through the different groups of people talking, he bid goodbye and the people answered as well, leaving into different directions.

“I’m really sorry, Draco. I didn’t want to destroy your meeting…” Harry started and wanted to add a few more apologies, when Draco simply waved him off.

He led him to the kitchen and started making some tea, while Harry sat down at the small dark wooden table. “Don’t worry, Harry. We were already finished with our meeting. They all just tend to overstay their welcome. I’m actually thankful you came here.” He placed the lemon tea in front of him and once Harry looked up, Draco had a stern look on his face. “Because I know you need to talk about your problems. So tell me, dar-Harry.”

Rubbing his forehead, Harry inhaled the lemon scented smell of his tea – the exact same tea he had always taken at Hogwarts and somehow, Draco had remembered it and given to him in times of great need. He really did care about him.

“Well, Hermione and Ron just came to tell me that they saw Ginny and Alejandro somewhere, being very intimate” he explained, putting his hands around the warm glass.

Draco stopped dead in his tracks and placed the teacup back on the table. “They… what? Oh, Harry, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t think anything would happen between the two of them, I would have never…”

“I know Draco” Harry interrupted the Slytherin and smiled weakly. “I know you wouldn’t have paired them if you had thought anything could have happened.”

It was quiet for a while, until Draco started to speak again. “Very kind of you to assume something like that, Harry…”

When he looked up, Draco suddenly stopped talking and stared back down at the table. “I know you Draco” Harry simply stated, which made the blond wizard look up again, though he was blinking faster.

Getting up, he had decided what he needed to do. Suddenly, he had felt the heat of anger in his bones. How dare Ginny think she could just have an affair a few weeks before their wedding?! He wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t going to be messed with! “I think I need to find them and burst into their little affair. I need to show them that they can’t just dance in front of my nose without consequences.”

Draco held back his arm and shook his head. The sudden contact made Harry shiver slightly. “You’re not thinking clearly, Harry. I think you need to clear your head before you can talk to either of them.”

Harry freed his arm and just wanted to storm out of the kitchen, when the door closed and he felt a rush of magic travel next to him. So, he simply stood in front of the door, his back turned to the Slytherin and his hand stretched out to touch the door knob.

It was quiet in the little kitchen until Harry turned his head as little as possible. “You always were very good at keeping me at bay when I was about to do something irrational” Harry stated and withdrew his hands, still not turning around.

The other wizard in the room didn’t say anything as well and when Harry turned around, finally, he saw him looking at him very intense. They stood there, staring at each other for the longest time, until Draco finally walked closer.

“I will open the door, once you’ve joined me in a dance, Harry. You _need_ to get a clear head before screaming at your wife-to-be” the Slytherin said quietly.

Harry swallowed heavily and tried everything in his power not to look at Draco’s moving lips. “What if I don’t want to marry her anymore?”

Draco stepped even closer and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Then you need to have an even clearer head. You shouldn’t be screaming at each other, okay?”

Nodding hesitantly, Harry accepted Draco’s offer for a dance. There was a charmed speaker playing another waltz. It was Vito's Waltz by Nino Rota. A waltz Draco had used a lot when they had wanted to just not think but dance and it had reminded Harry a lot of the movie Godfather…

Harry felt taken back to their Hogwarts years, though not for the first time. He suddenly lost all the reality in his head. They were dancing to an old song, Draco laughing loudly, grabbing him closely, before slowly kissing him. “I will never let you go, darling! Never!” Harry grinned and threw his arms around Draco’s neck, holding tightly. “If you ever let me go, I’ll be your stalked for the rest of your life!” The Slytherin was grinning and held him even tighter. “You’re crazy, Harry! And I love this about you.”

Harry smiled when he suddenly felt tears running down his face. Was he crying? Why would he cry? There was nothing bad going on! He was in Draco’s arms…

“Harry, listen to me, it’s going to be okay” he heard Draco’s voice and it sounded as if it was coming from far away. Inhaling deeply, he was pulled out of this memory and stared at the blond wizard, who was carefully stroking away his tears. “It’s going to be okay, Harry.”

He reached out and held the blond wizard’s hand that was on his cheek, which made him stop talking. There was so much chemistry in this room, when they stared at each other. Harry felt the need to be closer to him again. He leaned in and met Draco half way, kissing him softly, when he heard the door unlock. Neither wizard seemed to care about that, though Draco ended their kiss softly. This time, he didn’t run away, but Harry felt as if he himself was about to fall apart.

“Come here, Harry. You need to sleep” Draco grabbed his hands, led him through a small corridor and up some stairs. Harry didn’t hear much anymore, only followed the blond wizard in front of him and when he felt something warm and soft, he sighed contently and fell asleep almost immediately.

*

_”What did you do?” Ron asked and appeared at the door. “Malfoy ran away as if he had seen… I don’t know… you naked or something.”_

_Harry touched his lips quickly and turned to his two best friends who looked just as surprised as he did. “No idea, Ron.” He shrugged his shoulders and Ron grinned. They continued walking towards their Transfiguration class._

_Only in the afternoon, once all the classes had been over, did Harry grab the Marauder’s Map and saw Malfoy’s name by the lake. He grabbed his cloak and was there quicker than he thought. The blond wizard was still sitting there, staring over the lake._

_Walking closer, the Slytherin seemed to have heard something. Without turning around, he called out for who he thought was walking closer. “Go away, Pans! I don’t want you here. I’ll be in the Common Room before curfew starts.”_

_“That’s good, but I’m not actually Pansy” Harry answered, jerked away his cloak and Malfoy jumped up and stared at him. It looked as if he had been about to grab his wand, though when he saw Harry, he relaxed slightly._

_He narrowed his eyes and frowned. “What do you want, Potter?”_

_“Why did you kiss me?”_

_Malfoy crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged his shoulders. “I thought you were a girl. You were behaving like one anyway.”_

_Harry raised his eyebrows, before he smirked. “That would have worked a little, had you not told me you were gay in the classroom.”_

_The Slytherin growled and shrugged his shoulders again. “Why do you even care, Potter? You want an apology, okay: I’m sorry. Happy now?”_

_“Not even a little.”_

_“Then what do you want?” He seemed slightly pissed off and Harry had to bite back a smirk. He had never seen the Slytherin like that. Well, he had also never received a kiss from another man before and Malfoy had somehow captured not only his lips, but his whole being._

_Shrugging his shoulders, Harry stepped closer. “How about another kiss?”_

_“I… what?” Malfoy had clearly wanted to say something hurtful, when he stopped and narrowed his eyes. “Very funny, Potter. Where are your friends? Did you tell them what happened and now they want to see if it’s actually working again?”_

_“Ron has to write an essay for Potions and Hermione’s trying to help him. They’re in the library.” Malfoy was clearly not believing him, so he threw the Marauder’s Map at him. “That’s a map that tells you were everyone is. As you can see, we’re alone out here.”_

_The Slytherin took a closer look at the map and once he had been happy with what he was seeing there, he turned back to Harry. “And why exactly are you here?”_

_Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I just know that you didn’t even give me any time to react after you’ve kissed me.”_

_Malfoy blushed slightly and bit his lower lip, before answering carefully. “I thought you’d kill me for that. I don’t even know if you’re gay and I just kissed you… without any warning.”_

_“I’m not gay” Harry said and watched Malfoy’s face fall slightly. “But I’m pretty sure I’m bi, because that kiss was the most amazing thing that I have ever let happen to me. Next time, I would actually like to participate as well.” He smirked when the Slytherin rolled his eyes about his way of speaking._

_He stepped closer and smiled slightly. “As you wish, Oh Golden Boy.” With that he leaned in and met Harry halfway, kissing him softly. Harry responded and threw his arm around the Slytherin’s neck and the other around his waist, pulling him closer. Malfoy made a sound of approval and copied his body language, kissing him passionately._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Nino Rota (Godfather) – Vito’s Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPskYVBqdNw)


	11. Who do you love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out chapter 11, if you've jumped to the last chapter, since I uploaded 2 chapters today :)
> 
> As I said earlier, I'm not sure when I can upload again :( And I want to apologize for the cliffhanger, I certainly hadn't planned it that way xD
> 
> Anyway, I hope you'll like it and have faith in the two idiots ;)

Harry woke up in a room he didn’t know. He smelled freshly brewed coffee in the air and somehow bacon. Shaking his head, he stretched. Ginny had long ago decided for the two of them not to drink coffee anymore and meat also wasn’t allowed. Harry hadn’t gotten any chance to tell her that he actually enjoyed meat, even though he would agree not to eat it all the time.

Opening his eyes, he looked around and saw… nothing he recognized. There were a lot of CDs on the wall, movies about dancing and books with different dance styles in neatly arranged book cases. The color of the room was dark velvet and the sun shone through a lot of crystals hanging from the window frame, turning the room into a beautiful magical world.

He could faintly hear music, or rather another waltz and smiled softly. He had only just realized how they all had specific memories associated in his brain. This one was called Waves Of The Danube and had been written by Iosif Ivanovici, a Rumanian military band leader. Harry had thought it was a little funny, how Draco basically had shown him Muggle composers only, yet he claimed not to know anything about the Muggle culture. And when he had asked Draco about this, he had shrugged his shoulders and said that in music the Wizarding world hadn’t had as much success as the Muggles, so they had silently accepted to add Muggle composers to their Wizarding music lists.

“Morning, sleepy head” a voice sounded and when Harry had grabbed his glasses and looked at the door, Draco leaned at the frame and smiled at him. “Sleep well?”

Harry yawned and shook his head. “I have never slept that well before. And considering what kind of news I came here with, I’m a little surprised actually.”

Draco smirked. “I’m not. I have to admit that I charmed your bed so you could get a full night’s sleep. If you’re still in the mood of confronting your fiancé, you should do it when you’ve slept enough and can think clearly.”

“Still Slytherin, I see” Harry chuckled and rubbed his temples. His stomach grumbled and both men grinned at each other.

“There’s a toilet down the hall, the kitchen is in the other direction. Do come by before you leave, you need to get some food into you” Draco explained and left the bedroom. Though not before winking at him. And when he was almost out of sight, he turned around and started dancing to the waltz, which made Harry chuckle slightly.

He shook his head, though couldn’t stop thinking about how much Draco apparently cared for him and it warmed his heart. He used the toilet, charmed his clothes fresh and left to find Draco in the kitchen, managing the oven with some freshly baked bread and whistling along to the violins in the piece.

He placed the small bread in front of him and smiled. “Eat!” Harry chuckled, but rolled his eyes. He grabbed some bread, butter and the cheese Draco had put out. Even though they hadn’t seen each other for the past nine years, the Slytherin still seemed to remember what Harry liked to do with his food. They ate in silence, listening to the music in the background, everyone lost in their own world.

After a while, Harry turned to face Draco. “So, why did you open up a dancing studio?”

The Slytherin smiled weakly. “Don’t be mad at what I’m about to tell you, Harry. I’ve always enjoyed teaching you how to dance and when I left you, I wanted something to keep this memory alive. So I went here and opened up this studio. It actually took me two years to finally open it and get the people I wanted, but I’m happy with the results.”

Harry was quiet and looked at Draco with wide eyes. Only after a few moments could he find his voice again. “I have to admit that I was always looking forward to the dancing lessons. Past and present. You’re the best dance partner I’ve ever had.”

Draco smiled at him, before he looked back at his food. They finished their breakfast silently and Harry sighed, before grabbing his jacket and making himself ready to talk to Ginny. Draco followed him to the door and before he could leave, he leaned in and kissed his cheeks. “You can do this, Harry.”

Nodding softly, Harry captured Draco’s lips in a slow kiss. When they separated, Draco pushed some of Harry’s strain of hair out of his face. “Do come back when you’re done, Harry. We both know that you tend to forget about your own needs when you’re going through some hard times.”

“Thank you for being here for me, Draco” Harry whispered and the Slytherin nodded, pulling him into a tight hug.

*

_Harry woke up from someone shaking him. What was happening? Where were the Dementors and why had he lost his wand? There was no strength left in his body, he couldn’t perform a wandless charm anymore. He suddenly recognized Draco standing there, leaning over him. “Wake up, Harry, darling. It’s just a dream! Just a nightmare.”_

_He felt tears on his cheeks and pushed them out of his face with the flat of his hands. “Move over, Harry” Draco whispered and once Harry had done so, he climbed into his bed and held him closely. “You’re here with me at Hogwarts, nothing bad is going to happen to you. Never again, do you hear me? I won’t let anybody touch you!”_

_Nodding slightly, Harry turned to his side and hid his face in Draco’s chest. He felt his boyfriend breathing calmly and matched his breathing softly. Draco was rubbing his chest and whispering some words into his ears that he hadn’t needed to understand. He knew that the meaning of those words was full of love._

_“Thank you for being here for me, Draco.”_

_“I will be here for you forever, Harry. You’re my world.”_

*

The rain had been pouring down on Harry, when he finally made it into his home. It was quiet in the house, when Harry arrived and he frowned. He quickly casted a drying charm on himself and when he turned to the kitchen, he saw two wine glasses inside the sink. White wine glasses… Shaking his head, he climbed up the stairs to the master bedroom. The door was slightly open and when he pushed it open fully, his eyes fell on two people occupying the bed.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, his hand still raised to the door, foot slightly pushed away from the ground. He stepped back again and stared at the floor, hoping this was just some weird dream or bad joke. However, when he looked back at the bed, there were two people inside. Next to Ginny’s read hair, he recognized the curly red hair of Alejandro.

What did you do when something like that happened? Wait for them to wake up? Start screaming and hope they would wake up from this? Take a gun and shoot both of them before they would wake up.

Harry crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ceiling where he cast a wandless breaking charm. The rain from outside started pouring from the wood and it was suddenly like a waterfall inside. Right on top of the happy sleeping and cuddling couple. Or cheaters more likely.

Ginny squeaked and jumped out of bed, while Alejandro joined her. Almost even with the same sound. They both saw Harry standing there and while Alejandro was probably thinking about the chances of the ceiling breaking and the head of house standing at their bed, Ginny turned brightly red. It did match her hair rather perfectly.

“Harry! Where have you been yesterday? I’ve waited all night long!”

Frowning, Harry gestured towards Alejandro. “With him?”

Ginny nodded. “Alejandro came here, when I was looking for you and he stayed and helped me through the some hard times.”

“Clearly.”

As if she hadn’t heard him, Ginny continued. “And I’m always scared alone in bed, so he decided to stay and help me through the rough night. I could have really needed you here!”

Harry looked at Ginny, unable to believe how blatantly she was lying to him. Did she actually think he would believe those lies?

“He’s naked, Gin.” She opened her mouth, clearly about to tell another lie, when he held out his hands. “You know what, Ginny, no. It’s over. I don’t think I can stay in this relationship. You’re always thinking about yourself and I finally need someone who knows me a little more than you do.”

When he turned around, he heard Alejandro calling after him how he hadn’t been a real man towards Ginny and that he would never be happy if he would leave her, because she was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Harry only rolled his eyes. That man didn’t know him even a bit.

Before he could leave the house, Ginny stood next to him, dressed again. “Harry, you’re making a huge mistake! Do you really think that there’s someone out there that loves you? You’re so fucking broken, there’s no one in this entire world that could fix you!”

Harry froze, before he turned to face her. “Is that really what you think, Ginny? Why did you even want to marry me? Why are we in a relationship?!”

Ginny laughed loudly. “Not because I love you, idiot! Just think about how much people would envy me, if I was the one to marry you! They would follow me around as much as you and I could get everything I wanted.”

“You… you just want my fame?” Harry asked unable to believe what he was learning right now. He had always thought that Ginny wasn’t made of the same thing as the other girls he would see from day to day when he was in Diagon Alley.

His fiancé grinned and shrugged her shoulder. She seemed to be in another world right now. “I mean, we are amazing together. There are thousands of magazines that are writing about how much we care for each other and…”

“_I care about you_. You don’t care about me, which you just said. I will not spend my marriage in an institution full of…” _Pain and suffering_. Harry remembered Draco laughing at this and he suddenly had a very warm feeling around his heart. He had never tried to get Harry’s fame. They had always hidden somewhere, where no one had seen them together. And he had never said that Harry was broken or that he needed to be fixed.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Harry! We’re a perfect match! I like Quidditch, you like Quidditch. You’re Head Auror, I love that about you and by next year we’re having a child already and it’s…”

“I’m not Head Auror, yet. In fact, I’m thinking about quitting.”

Ginny shook her head. “Don’t try and tell me you’re better than me! I know you just wanted to marry me so you could adopt Edward! He’s not even your son and you behave as if he’s the most perfect thing on earth! You’re not his father and he’s never going to see you as one.”

Wow. Ginny had hit the bull’s eye. For a while now, Harry had been wondering whether or not he was about to marry her only for the reason to get Teddy. In the last few days it had gotten clearer that this was exactly the case. However, Harry knew that Teddy did see him as a father figure. He knew from experience that having father figures was just as good.

After he had collected his thoughts again, he decided not to talk about his godson anymore, since he indeed was the most perfect thing in his life. “And if this life is so perfect to you, then where does Alejandro fit in?” Harry asked, his hands on his hips.

“Every happy wife has a lover” she shrugged her shoulders as if it was in fact like that.

Harry shook his head. “No. Ginny, it’s over. I’m leaving.”

“Fuck you, Harry! You’re weak and pathetic and all the friends you think you have are just illusions of people who think exactly as I do! Do you honestly think Malfoy wants anything other from you than I want? I noticed how you look at him and I know that his name is still deep inside the mud! If he gets you on his side, don’t you think that he would suddenly be back in the good light? He just wants your fame! Everyone here wants that! Go fuck yourself and don’t you ever think about coming back here, you bloody idiot!”

Bolting out of the house, Harry ran through London in blind rage until he felt his heart calming down. He felt tears running down his face and when he saw a bridge, he crawled under it, hiding from the rain and the people as much as possible. He wished he could just die there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Iosif Ivanovici – Waves Of The Danube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht30HqwXoxA)
> 
> If you haven't checked out any music so far, I'd really encourage you to look at this one, I really love it and it's also the usual style of a waltz :D


	12. The actual Dance Partner

Time had lost its power over Harry as he sat under the bridge listening to cars driving and pedestrian talking loudly. He had no idea how long he had been there, until he realized that the sun had left the horizon and the darkness of the night was surrounding every living being.

He crawled out from under the bridge and stood there indecisive of where he wanted to go. Home? He was pretty sure that he didn't have the privilege of doing that. Ginny had told him to leave, so he had. Without packing anything.

Where else should he turn to? His mind wanted him to go to Draco’s, but he had stayed there long enough and he also didn’t want to turn up there being the loser that he was. He had already shown Draco too much of his pain, he didn’t need to see it all of it if they were just going to stay away from each other again.

So, Harry sighed, looked around and once he realized that he was alone, he turned on the spot, apparating to the doorstep of Hermione and Ron’s small house outside of London. He knocked and the door was opened rather quickly by Hermione.

She looked tense, but relaxed as she saw him. “Harry! Come in, come in! We’ve been looking for you for ever! Where have you been?”

Harry smiled slightly. “I don’t know. I needed some time to think. Sorry for scaring you.”

His best friend nodded and conjured a Patronus telling Ron to come back home, since Harry was here. She then turned back to him, made him sit at the kitchen table and brought a lot of breakfast food and made some tea. Harry smirked slightly, since breakfast was supposed to be long over. 

“Don’t worry, Harry! You didn’t scare us that much. We know you sometimes need a little time alone” she smiled again and hugged him tightly.

Ever since she had found out that she was pregnant, she had transformed into an even more caring person. Ron had joked that as her body was already transforming to being a mom, her mind was as well. Hermione had only shrugged to that, but Harry could see it right now as well.

“There was however, someone else who you’ve scared quite a lot” Hermione sat down at the table and looked at him carefully. “Why did you never tell us that you’ve been in a relationship with Draco Malfoy?!”

Harry looked up, surprised and scared that Hermione was throwing him out again. Though, she only smiled at him warmly. “Why are you not shouting at me for that? Why aren’t you yelling at me that I was in a relationship with Ginny and now there’s also Draco?”

Hermione smiled softly. “Contrary to what you might think, Harry, I know that people can be bisexual. And I always thought that there was something between the two of you. After he left Hogwarts, you were extremely depressed.” Harry looked at her unable to believe that she had seen through him that easily.

“I tried not to let anyone see it, though!”

“You did, Harry. And I’m sure nobody actually saw it. But we’ve lived together for a year, running away from danger. I know you, Harry. I saw how depressed you were and I didn’t need to do a lot of thinking that you and Draco had something going on” Hermione chuckled. “I just never really put these two things together, until Draco was standing on our front door asking whether we had heard anything from you.”

Harry widened his eyes. Draco went to Hermione and Ron? For him? He might have stronger feelings than Harry had thought… Well, Ginny’s screaming might have put some bad ideas into his head. Maybe he didn’t just want him for his fame… In fact, Harry knew that Ron and Hermione would always stay his friends.

“Were you surprised?” he asked and smiled slightly.

Hermione laughed and nodded. “Ron thought we were under attack! When Draco asked for you, he told us about your dancing lessons, that you had spent the last night with him and that you wanted confront Ginny today. We talked for almost an hour and he told us about your secret relationship at Hogwarts. After that, Ron immediately grabbed him and they went looking for you.”

Harry laughed, still unable to believe what had transpired today. “Draco must have freaked out about that…”

“Not the first time today.”

That wasn’t Hermione who answered, but Draco. Harry looked up and saw both men back home. They looked rather at ease together. In fact, it seemed as if the two of them had formed a friendship or rather understanding of their own while looking for him. Ron walked into the room, hugged Hermione and greeted Harry. They both then smiled at Harry and Draco and left the room without any words.

Draco sat down opposite of him and looked at the food and then the empty plate in front of Harry. He frowned and was just about to say something, when Harry held out his hand to stop him.

“I’m sorry, Draco. I didn’t want to scare you, honestly. I was just… I was suddenly unsure whether or not you’d actually want to spend time with me…” Harry bit his lower lip and looked at the plate.

“Harry.”

His name was said so soft and calm that Harry had to look up and was met with a smile. It was one of those smiles that reminded him of the days spent together in the Room of Requirement, the dancing, the teasing and the love they shared for each other.

For a long time, they simply looked at each other, until Draco smirked slightly. “Do you love me, Harry?” It was almost a whisper; the Slytherin was speaking so quiet.

“I never stopped, Draco. You were my first real love.” Harry was quiet again and looked at the Slytherin. “Do you love me?”

“With every fiber of my body, Harry. You are my one and only.”

Draco got up and walked around the table, leaned over Harry and kissed him softly. Harry responded quickly, got up as well and threw his arms around the Slytherin’s neck. He felt Draco’s arms around his waist, pulling him closer and deeper. Harry sighed into the kiss and swallowed it quickly.

Once Harry couldn’t breathe anymore, Draco thankfully pulled away and Harry let his head sink on the Slytherin’s shoulder. The other man put his hand on his back and pulled him even closer. Harry closed his eyes, inhaling the very strawberry scent he had missed over so many years.

“I’m very sorry, Draco” Harry whispered quietly.

Draco kissed his cheek softly. “You don’t need to be sorry, Harry. I’m the one who left you alone and confused at Hogwarts. I’m so sorry about that. I promise you that this will never ever happen again, if you would give me the chance to prove myself again.”

Harry pulled back and looked at the blond wizard. There was a single tear rolling down his cheek. He stroked it away with his thumb and kissed the place where the tear would have been. Draco was trembling slightly.

“If you walk out on me, Draco, I will hunt you down and make you pay for it! Because I’m now giving you my heart and my trust. I love you with all my heart” Harry whispered into the Slytherin’s ear and he was pulled into the hug even tighter.

“I love you too, Harry. And I will never ever walk away from you ever again! Otherwise you do have my permission to make me pay for it” Draco answered and Harry laughed and drew him into a kiss.

It ended rather quickly, as Hermione and Ron walked in and broke them up. “Guys, you’re not going to like this, but Ginny’s here and wants to talk to Harry.” Hermione rolled her eyes, while Ron had given them the news.

Draco narrowed his eyes and answered immediately. “Absolutely not.”

Harry placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. “She can talk to me if she wants, but I think I need to eat something.” He looked at Draco who immediately understood what he meant and sat down at the table next to him and started putting food on his plate.

Hermione chuckled slightly, walked back to the fridge and took out some boiled eggs and orange juice, before sitting down herself. Ron only nodded, apparently okay with what was happening and walked outside, before he came back with Ginny following closely.

When her eyes fell on the scene, she stopped immediately. Ron sat down next to his wife and pointed to the empty seat between him and Draco. “We’re having dinner and breakfast at the same time, you can sit here as well, if you’d like.”

Ginny shook her head and turned to Harry. “Harry, love…” Draco scoffed, which made Ginny throw him a death glare, but Harry had to bite back a smirk. “Harry, listen, what happened this morning was a huge misunderstanding!”

“You lying in our bed with your dancing teacher was a misunderstanding?” Harry asked as if he was slow off the mark. He then turned to Draco, trying his hardest to hide the grin. “Did we ever have this misunderstanding?”

Draco chuckled and shook his head, clearly not willing to give another answer. Theoretically, Harry had been in his bed, though it was a guest bed and not the actual one Draco would be sleeping in.

Harry turned back to Ginny who was just about to say something hurtful, when he interrupted her. “Also, that huge misunderstanding you’ve been talking about, does it have something to do with you telling me how you only enjoyed my fame? How you wanted to be the one every girl would envy, because you were married to me? Or was it the part where you said I would never find true love because I was too broken to be fixed by anyone?”

Draco had stopped eating and stared at Harry in disbelieve. Hermione and Ron had also stopped eating, though looked at Ginny clearly angry.

Hermione was the first to break the silence and tension in the air. “Ginevra, what were you thinking?!”

Ginny rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. In this position she looked like a small child not willing to go away from the sweets she had just found in a store. “You are all already famous! I just wanted to have some of that as well!”

Ron shook his head. “Ginny, you should marry because you love someone. Not because you want their fame!”

“Then what is Malfoy doing here?! Clearly, I’m not the only one having had an affair with my dancing teacher!”

Draco shook his head and finally turned to Ginny. “You were the only one, actually. And Alejandro’s no longer employed.”

Ginny rolled her eyes and turned back to Harry. “You and I, we’re _the_ couple, Harry. Just think about how famous we could become! There’s no one who could stop us! You could be Head Auror by next month and I would be teaching Quidditch to our children and they’re going to be the best Quidditch player Hogwarts has ever seen! Just imagine it, Harry!”

“I’d rather not, Ginny” Harry answered and sighed. “Has it ever occurred to you that I might have an idea of my future as well?”

“So?”

Harry gestured towards her, hoping she’d understand that he meant whatever she had said a few seconds before. “It’s not that!”

Ginny put her hands on her hip and raised her eyebrows. “Interesting. So, you think you can just do whatever pleases you?! Let me tell you something, Harry: If you’re leaving me now, I will plan this wedding so that everyone thinks you’re going to be there only to be the one left at the altar. That way you’re going to be the bad guy! You’re either going to marry me or you’re going to have to live your life with everyone thinking you left your lovely wife on their wedding day!”

With that she stormed out of the house and Harry sighed, rolling his eyes. Draco scoffed and turned to Harry, looking at his plate, which he had quite clearly not touched. Grinning slightly, Harry grabbed some vegetables and put it into his mouth. When he swallowed, he stuck out his tongue at Draco, who leaned over to kiss him quickly.

Ron shook his head. “I thought I was bad with my envy of you during our Hogwarts years, Harry. This is even worse! I’m so sorry about my sister!”

“Don’t worry, Ron. I should have seen it earlier, to be honest” Harry sighed. “I guess I need to go and find a journalist willing enough to write a piece about the end of my relationship, so Ginny’s not going around telling everyone about the wedding.”

Draco chuckled and once everyone looked at him, he shrugged his shoulders. “I know two very good journalists who would very much like to report about the end of your relationship.” Since everyone was still frowning at him, the Slytherin elaborated. “Blaise and Pansy Zabini, they married and ever since that happened, they wanted to get you for an interview. Their only goal for that is so that they could tell me you’re finally single again.”

“What do they work for?” Hermione asked interested.

“Blaise writes for the Prophet and Pansy has her own little magazine, have you ever heard of _Women at the Wheel_?” Draco asked and Hermione’s eyes widened.

Despite its rather sexist name, the WaW had gathered hundreds of readers both female and male, since the articles were about self empowerment, market analysis and understanding the difference between men and women. Next to some healthy gossip. Over the years, WaW had started to become a respected magazine and Harry knew that Hermione was a huge supporter of it.

Draco smirked slightly and when he looked at Harry, he raised his eyebrows, looking at his plate. Harry chuckled and ate another piece, rolling his eyes.

“I think that would be an amazing starting point!” Hermione said quickly. “Draco, can I please meet Pansy and tell her how much I love her magazine?”

*

_Harry saw Draco enter the Room of Requirement and tilt his head. There was a huge projector and Harry was holding three different movies in his hands._

_“Harry, what is going on?”_

_Chuckling about his boyfriend’s confused voice, Harry explained what they were doing. “It’s a date night, Draco. And I thought maybe you wanted to get better in Muggle Studies, so we’re going to watch a movie.”_

_Draco stared at him as if he was talking in Chinese. Harry grinned. The confusion Draco was quite clearly showing was the cutest part of him._

_“Do you know what a movie is?”_

_Shaking his head, Draco sat down on the couch in front of the projector. He had his head tilted again, which Harry had learnt was a sign that Draco was actively listening. “A movie is like a picture that’s alive. You know Muggles don’t have newspapers that are moving, but they realized that could capture people doing stuff on film and to show it to other people. They call it ‘Moving Pictures’ by the way.”_

_Draco narrowed his eyes. “And where’s the story? You can’t really get a story with only pictures, right?”_

_“Wrong, darling. For Muggle Studies, you’re going to write about silent movies, okay Draco? So pay attention, when we’re playing Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Gold Rush’. And no we’re not watching the one with sound.”_

_“You’re the best boyfriend ever, Harry!” Draco smirked at him, when Harry placed the right movie into the projector._

_Harry grinned at him and he walked over while the lights dimmed. “Be quiet and pay attention, Draco dear!”_


	13. Dancing saved you

The Interview took place in Draco’s Dance Studio. Well, actually on top of it, in Draco’s apartment. Blaise and Pansy had both agreed on an interview as fast as possible. For Blaise it wasn’t much a problem, but Pansy needed to print her magazine in two days (since it was distributed in four days) and she wanted this story to be in there before the wedding would happen. Harry was incredibly happy about that.

Next to Draco’s two best friends, Ron and Hermione had been there as well. Draco had led the Golden Trio around the dance studio and then up the stairs to his apartment, where the two Slytherins had been waiting.

“Hello Harry!” Pansy greeted him and kissed his cheeks. “I hope it’s okay that we skipped the formalities? Otherwise that would have probably just gotten awkward.” She smiled at him, while he nodded quickly.

Blaise pulled him into a hug, before they all sat down and both journalists had their notes ready. “Best, you just tell us what you would like the readers to know” Blaise started. “We will ask some questions and our articles won’t be exactly the same, because I need to be more neutral, but Pansy can be as emotional as she wants to.”

“And I will do anything in my power that my readers will fall apart by the end of the article!” she grinned and winked at Harry, which made Draco clear his throat and the people inside the living room laughed.

The interview lasted no longer than an hour and forty five minutes and while Blaise left immediately, Draco had told Pansy to stay and talk to Hermione, which Harry’s best friend was head over heels for. Ron went to work, while rolling his eyes, and had agreed to take Harry’s letter of resignation to the Head Auror himself. Harry on the other hand was sure that Ron would become the next Head Auror, now that Harry’s fame wasn’t available anymore. He was convinced that Ron’s hard working antics had long been seen by their bosses, but that they didn’t want to give the position to anyone else but the Golden Boy.

“How do you feel, Harry?” Draco asked and snuck his arms around Harry’s waste, kissing his neck softly. He then placed his head on Harry’s shoulder looking out into street as well.

Harry leaned into Draco and they looked out of the window, where a few teenagers were searching for something. “Pretty good, actually. Thank you for staying by my side.”

Draco held him tighter. “I just want you to know that I don’t think you’re too broken to be fixed.”

Smirking slightly, Harry turned around in this hug and placed his hands on Draco’s chest. Before he could say anything, the Slytherin drew him into another kiss. “No, Harry. You’re not too broken.” Harry wanted to say something, when Draco held his hand over his mouth. “Did you know that in Japan, if something falls apart, they fix it with gold? It’s part of your story and you should show it rather than hide it.”

“Why don’t you then just throw me into a pot full of gold?”

Draco chuckled and shook his head. “You’re not _that_ broken, love. Just a little. I could put your head into that pot, yes.”

Harry shook his head and grinned. Draco held him so close that Harry actually couldn’t think of another person, who could love him as much as Draco did.

*

_The door of the Hospital Wing opened and a blond wizard appeared. He scanned the room, until he found who he was looking for. Harry smiled slightly, when Draco sat down by his bed._

_“Harry, I told you to eat something! How many times have you not eaten anything?” Draco asked, clearly concerned with his well being._

_Shaking his head, Harry closed his eyes. “I haven’t been good. I don’t get to…” He could speak more, as a hand was in front of his mouth._

_Draco glared at him. “You forgot your homework, Harry! That has absolutely nothing to do with being good! Do you want me to sit next to you at the Gryffindor table!?”_

_“I do actually, Draco! I want you to be close to me wherever I go and whatever I do. I need you” Harry confessed quietly. The Slytherin sighed and stroked his cheeks._

_“You know we can’t do that. Your friends would freak out and mine as well.” Harry nodded softly. Draco kissed his forehead. “I brought you my special soup, darling.”_

_Harry sat up with great effort. The soup was Draco’s secret recipe which he had developed to help Harry with his eating problem. It had everything inside he would need to get back in shape and walking in a matter of hours._

_Once Harry had eaten, he lay back down and Draco kissed his cheeks. “Sleep tight, love.” He wanted to get up, when his boyfriend grabbed his arm._

_“Don’t leave, yet, Draco!”_

_Draco smiled softly, and when Harry moved to make room for him, he snuggled into the bed his favorite person was occupying. “You’re everything to me, Harry.”_

*

“Harry?”

Suddenly thrown out of his memory, Harry looked up with wide eyes, when Draco chuckled. “You are the most distracted wizard I’ve ever seen, love.”

Harry rolled his eyes and kissed Draco, before they could exchange any more words. However, they were interrupted rather quickly by Pansy.

“How come you two are together already? I wanted to write a piece where I could be like ‘Look, Draco, Potter’s not in a relationship anymore’ and see him freak out. Then I could bring you two together and…”

“Be the hero of this story” Draco interrupted her speech, when she grinned and winked at the two of them.

She grabbed her stuff and turned to them again. “Blaise will be publishing his story tomorrow already. While my story needs about four days. I might come back for some pictures if that’s all right with you, Harry?”

Nodding, Harry silently gave his agreement, when she bid goodbye to the three of them. Hermione left shortly after and Harry decided to stay with Draco for a few days. The next morning, there was a copy of the Prophet waiting on the kitchen table.

> **The Boy Who Lived Breaks Off Engagement**  
By Blaise Zabini
> 
> Nobody would have seen it coming! This weekend, Harry Potter our local Savior and Hero, found his fiancé cheating on him. After a surprising seven year relationship without any progress, many thought that Harry Potter and his fiancé Ginevra Weasley were just putting on a show. Since the engagement has been made publicly, however, the public has believed that their relationship was going strong.
> 
> Their neighbor, Maria-Anna Nox, explained: 'The two of them were the happiest couple I have ever seen! They never shouted, never screamed at each other when one left the house. Always happy to be back in each other’s arms. I was surprised, when Ginny [Ginevra Weasley] told me that they were getting married in a few weeks. I’d always assumed the two of them were already married.'
> 
> Leo Bennet, a fellow Auror of Harry Potter, told the Prophet as well: 'I have never seen two people more in love than these two! They were made for each other. I’m a little surprised that they haven’t married earlier!'
> 
> Case in point, their wedding was supposed to take place in three weeks. Everything was already prepared and paid for, when Harry Potter found out that his fiancé had been sleeping with her dancing teacher. Formally employed in the dance studio the pair had taken lessons to practice their wedding dance; the private tutor had charmed the soon-to-be Mrs. Potter and the two of them were out almost all the time.
> 
> 'We were supposed to have a date one evening and Ginny came late and in presence of Augustino*' Potter tells us. 'She asked me if I had anything against him staying with us, but I didn’t have time to answer as he was already placed at our table. I honestly didn’t know what to do.'
> 
> And it seemed to go on like that. A few days after that incident, Weasley was spotted out and about, alone with her dance tutor. And when Potter came home, he found the two of them sharing a bed. Potter explains further. 'She chased me out of the house with evil things called after me and I went to stay with my friends.'
> 
> He wasn’t ready to explain to us what she had told him, however, some sources close to our Savior told us that she called after him that he was too broken to be fixed and that she only wanted to be with him for his fame.
> 
> In fact, the break up happened a few hours later, when Weasley visited the place where Potter was staying and discussed with him that she only wanted to marry him so that others would envy her and she ended up threatening him to plan the wedding as if it was still happening, only so she would be left at her supposedly happiest day in her life. Unfortunately, Weasley wasn't available for any comments to defend her side of the story, but who would question the Savior?
> 
> 'If you hear that the wedding is still happening, don’t believe it.' Potter tells us, before adding: 'That wedding’s off.'
> 
> *_name withheld by request and Ministry Muggle Laws_


	14. The Impact of the Newspapers

> **Harry’s Happy Heart**  
by Pansy Zabini-Parkinson
> 
> Ladies, grab a tissue, Gentlemen, you too can grab a tissue; there are plenty for everyone. You might have read it in the Prophet first; however, my husband and I have done this interview together. Our poor Savior, Harry Potter, had a broken heart! Before you start to wonder about the title of this article, we’re going through the facts one more time.
> 
>   1. Ginny Weasley was sleeping with her dancing teacher
>   2. She only wanted to marry our Savior for his fame (and probably money as well)
>   3. She tried to get him back and told him to marry her or else she would be planning the wedding of the century only to make him leave her standing at the altar alone
> 
> Gentlemen; we’re not all like that; I just want to let you know that! And if any of you ladies think that this is a good idea to keep your man to yourself (next to telling him you’re pregnant, which we've discussed in our last issue), let me quote Harry: 'What a stupid idea!'
> 
> I sat down with the one and only Harry Potter and we talked about all things, from the past to the present and the future. Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter had met again on Christmas after they both had finished Hogwarts and he had been accepted as an Auror trainee. Harry couldn’t remember if the sparks were flying, but he remembered that he was in a deep low and she had been there to pick him up. And two weeks later, the two of them were already living together.
> 
> Fellow Auror partner, Ronald Weasley, commented on their first few years of their relationship. 'It was extremely fast. We were all preparing for wedding invitations three months after they met again. They were already together during our years at Hogwarts, so it wouldn’t have surprised me.'
> 
> However, the wedding invitations needed about seven years to be sent out. Harry couldn’t really come up with an explanation. 'I don’t know why we needed that long. I guess I was stuck in a relationship that I didn’t see a way out of.'
> 
> For their wedding, Ginny enrolled them in Draco Malfoy’s dance studio, where he met both of them for the first time after a long time again. 'Both weren’t really happy with seeing me' Draco recalls and smiles slightly. 'Not that I was surprised by that. Ginny somehow agreed to staying here but only after threatening to tell the public what I’m doing with my life.'
> 
> Draco paired her up with his now ex-employee Abeladro A.*, not knowing about the affair after it was all over and done. Both Draco and Harry recall the two of them meeting at weird times for their dancing lessons.
> 
> 'Abeladro told me at nine in the evening, that he had made another appointment with Miss Weasley' Draco remembers. 'We only allow classes to start up until eight, since they take about two hours.'
> 
> And now that the whole engagement is over and done, we asked what would happen to Harry now. The Savior wasn’t willing to answer, but he did answer that he wasn’t about to jump into a rebound relationship. His future had apparently been planned by Ginny, which was also why he had quit the Aurors. What he is doing now and who he is dating… I believe this is best left to Harry himself. We wish you all the best for your future! May you find the love of your life very soon.
> 
> _*name withheld by request and Ministry Muggle Laws_

“I do appreciate the different styles of how they write” Harry grinned, when he closed the magazine and felt Draco walking up behind him. The Slytherin had a piece of toast in his hand and a coffee in his other. Harry was sitting in Draco’s small living room, occupying one of the two chairs placed around the table in the middle of the room.

The Slytherin kissed Harry’s neck, while placing the items in front of him. “Dra… Draco, stop” Harry chuckled and pushed him away. He smiled softly and looked at the toast with bacon on top of it. Draco had even put three halves of tomatoes next to it.

“Draco, why are there only three pieces of tomatoes?”

Chuckling, the Slytherin winked at him. “Oh, now you suddenly care about food? What about all those past weeks, where I almost had to force you to eat something?”

Harry smirked and turned to his food, eating a tomato piece. He didn’t have to tell the blond wizard that stress was always problematic for his eating habits and that the past with Ginny ignoring him and the wedding they had to plan had started to get on his nerves. Draco knew all of that already. In fact, he had been the one to figure out his triggers.

Grinning, Draco sat down next to him and pointed to the toast in front of him. “Eat!” He took away Pansy’s magazine and motioned towards the plate. Harry smirked, but still ate everything that was standing or lying in front of him.

“You know I somehow had a very high number of new people joining my dance studio. I have no idea where they came from…” Draco’s heavy sarcasm made Harry chuckle and he shrugged, pretending also not to know that most of these people were wizards who had clearly read the articles and wanted to see what the dance studio was all about.

Harry had recognized Theodore Nott, even Neville Longbottom and his wife Hanna had joined a partner dancing workshop. Not that Harry was actively trying to look at all of Draco’s customers. He had grinned at how lost most of the wizards had looked around the Muggles.

*

_“What are we doing here, Harry?! That is just stupid.”_

_Harry grinned when he turned around. There was some snow stuck to Draco’s Slytherin green cap. His cheeks were red and glowing slightly, as was his nose._

_“We’re trying to fit into a Muggle Sylvester fair. Think about all the additional good marks you could gather if you tell our Muggle Studies professor about this!” Harry grinned, while Draco was clearly trying to think his way around this information._

_In the end, he grabbed his boyfriend’s hand and they walked around the colorful, snowy landscapes. A lot of people were screaming, laughing loudly and the music from all the different attractions was forming its own kind of mess._

_Harry had never really enjoyed the fair that much, because it had always had these bad memories of Dudley being bored and starting to chase Harry around. In the end, it had always been Harry’s fault when something had happened. His cousin, being the angel that he was, would have never tried to hide in a booth, getting away from his tormentor. _

_“You know Harry, you could just tell me, that you want to go ever there” Draco interrupted his thoughts and looked over to a booth that Harry had been staring at, lost in his own world._

_“I… no, I wasn’t trying to go there, honestly.”_

_Draco smirked and grabbed his arm, tugging him along. There were a lot of big plush animals hanging around the booth. Draco paid for four balls with which he was supposed to make ten cans fall from the wooden plank. Well, Harry should have known his boyfriend when he felt a little magic rush towards the cans at the same time as Draco threw the ball. All the cans fell down and the man behind the booth laughed and offered him a brown teddy bear with a Slytherin green bow around his neck._

_“You cheated, Draco!” Harry stated, once they weren’t standing around in hearing distance to the booth._

_The Slytherin laughed. “I’m a Slytherin and that man made it easy to cheat on him! Harry, I won you a plush teddy bear”_

_Harry shook his head. “I do not accept presents you have won through cheating, Draco!”_

_Rolling his eyes, Draco sighed. “What if I promised you never to cheat again? Would you accept my present then? Because I actually wanted to get this one, so you could have something to cuddle, whenever I wasn’t there.”_

_Suddenly quiet, Harry looked up into his boyfriend’s eyes and nodded carefully. “How did I get so lucky to get you as my boyfriend?”_

_“I don’t know, Harry. But I think it’s the right question.” Draco smirked, when Harry pushed him back, grabbed the teddy bear and held it tight._

*

Harry got ripped out of his memory by a soft kiss to his neck. He shivered and smiled. Draco was standing behind him, his arms around his chest and kissing his neck. Harry closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet strawberry scent radiation off of Draco.

“I’m actually very happy you’re here, Harry” Draco whispered into his ears, while Harry smiled softly and exposed more skin on his neck, which Draco started kissing again.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t been looking for you. I wish I would have known where to start” Harry admitted quietly.

Draco stopped kissing his neck and hugged him tighter. “I wouldn’t have had the strength to talk to you, Harry. I probably would have told another dancing teacher to talk to you.” Harry felt a soft kiss on the back of his neck. “In fact, I was considering not walking into that room, when I saw you first. But I decided to face my fears and…” He walked around Harry and sat on his lap, which Harry smirked at him for doing. “It kind of worked out, didn’t it?”

“I love you, Draco Malfoy!”

The Slytherin smiled warmly. “I love you too, Harry. You are everything to me. And I can’t believe I just walked away from you.”

Harry brushed some blond strains of hair out of Draco’s face and smiled lovingly. “That’s in the past now. In the past few weeks, you didn’t walk away from me and you showed me that you were actually interested in me. And for that I love you with all my heart.”

Draco chuckled and caught his lips in a passionate kiss. “I love you with all my heart as well. However, love; you need to eat!”

“Have you been dreaming, darling? My plate is empty! I was a good boy and ate everything already” Harry grinned.

The Slytherin smirked and turned around to look at the plate. When he turned back, he wordlessly kissed him again. Harry put his arms around him, but the blond wizard moved to straddle his legs and put his arms around Harry’s neck.

Before they could talk more, an owl flew into the open window and stared at the two of them clearly disapprovingly. Draco frowned and got up to get the letter. Harry recognized the hand writing immediately and apparently so did the other man.

“You have five seconds to stop me from setting this thing on fire” Draco offered and turned towards Harry.

He only smiled and remained silent. Ginny could write as many letters as she wanted, he was never ever going to open up any of those ever again. Draco counted to five and set it on fire almost instantly. 

“I love you, Harry Potter.”


	15. Harry Potter, will you marry me?

Walking into the dancing studio with all of his clothes in three different suitcases and bags, Harry felt a little awkward. However, only until he saw Draco walking towards him with a huge smile on his face. He grabbed his suitcase and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

“What a surprise seeing you here, darling” he smirked, grabbing his hands, leading him up the stairs into his apartment.

Harry chuckled and rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t seem that surprising to you, love.”

Draco winked at him and as soon as they stood in the living room, he pulled him into his arms and danced around the room with no music, not caring about anything else. Harry laughed loudly and felt the happiness in his bones. The Slytherin pulled him closer and kissed his neck, while he closed his eyes, simply enjoying the love of his life so close.

“You’re mine, Harry. Mine only!” Draco whispered into his ear and Harry felt himself shiver slightly. “I love you!”

“I love you too, Draco.”

The Slytherin smiled and swayed Harry around the room slowly, until his eyes fell onto the brown teddy bear, looking out of Harry’s bag. He froze and gradually turned back to the newest addition to the apartment.

“Is that my teddy bear?” he asked quietly.

Harry turned around and looked at the dark brown fur sticking out of the bag. He looked back at Draco, who had some trouble hiding the tears in his eyes. “It is. I do have to admit that on nights where I had some trouble sleeping, I hugged it tightly and pretended that it was you, not the bear.”

“Well, you can stop with that now” Draco said quietly. “Because now you got the real thing, Harry.”

Nodding, Harry suddenly saw a single tear travel down the Slytherin’s cheek. He softly brushed it out off his face and smiled at him. Draco pulled him in a tight hug and they once again danced around the room, not caring about anything else.

An hour later, in which Harry had unpacked and Draco had successfully convinced him to be his partner in another dance lesson, they walked down to the dancing rooms. So, he stood in front of five pairs he had never seen, looking back at Draco who grinned slightly.

“Well, guys” Harry ended his little speech and smiled at the ten people. “Remember to have fun, even if it’s strict, it should be fun as well.”

Draco walked up behind Harry, putting an arm around his shoulders. “Just don’t step on your partner’s feet, right love?”

The students were laughing and Harry shot Draco a lopsided grin. “I have absolutely no idea what you could be talking about, Draco.”

The Slytherin kissed his cheek and walked over to the music box to start the waltz. It was a waltz called The Skaters Waltz by Émile Waldteufel and some beautiful horns and violins sounded before turning into an actual waltz with a good rhythm.

Harry watched the people dance and once again realized how intimate this action was between people that actually loved each other. It had never looked or felt that way when he had been dancing with Ginny. With the other dancing instrutor, however... absolutely.

Draco had started this LBGTQ-dancing class, so the five pairs consisted of two women pairings and three men couples. Apparently, there were a lot more interested, but Draco didn’t feel as if he could help more than five pairs at the same time, which Harry understood somehow. The blond wizard walked through the dancers, explaining some steps, correcting poses and throwing some glances over to Harry. He knew that for the pairs, the two of them must have looked completely love struck.

In fact, once the dance class was over, two men stayed behind and smiled at Draco and Harry. “I have never seen a couple as perfect as you two!” His partner pushed his shoulder and he grinned. “Except for us, of course.”

Harry laughed and looked over to Draco who had a grin on his face as well. “Thank you Herbert, don’t try to anger your man any more” he winked at him and the two men left the room, whispering together.

While Harry grinned, Draco walked over and kissed him passionately. “I do agree with him, you know. We’re a perfect couple.”

Throwing his arms around the Slytherin, Harry inhaled the strawberry scent and shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe.”

“For sure.” Draco narrowed his eyes, but grinned. “Hey, love, can you go and fetch the mop from the kitchen?”

“Can’t you use magic, darling?” Harry asked and Draco shook his head. So, he sighed and walked out of the small room through the hallway into to kitchen. The only problem was that he couldn’t find any mop here.

Frowning, he turned around and walked back into the room, where he froze. He suddenly heard music that was not Draco’s normal choice of dancing music. It was however… music about marrying someone. Harry walked closer and as he reached the entrance, he stopped, taking in everything that had happened.

*

_“Here’s an idea, Harry” Draco smirked, looking at the ceiling in the Room of Requirement. Somehow, when he had created the room, he had apparently thought of stars, since there were thousands of them on the roof. It looked as if they were lying outside, only that they were lying side by side on a huge couch. “Public proposals!”_

_Harry frowned and shook his head. “Just imagine you’re proposing and the other person refuses! That would be a nightmare if you’re doing it in public! I once read of a man who had the marriage proposal tattooed on his body and the girl said no.”_

_Draco laughed and it filled the room beautifully. The couch was shaking slightly and Harry turned his head a little to see his boyfriend. “Okay, that’s just foolish. I was thinking more of a skywriter or a radio station that would somehow tell the other about the proposal.”_

_“I’m impressed you even know about those things” Harry smirked, which made him be the target of a flying cushion. He snickered and lay back down. “What do you think about destination proposals? I mean there are destination weddings…”_

_Shrugging his shoulders, Draco turned to look at him as well. “Do you want to hear my opinion before you plan a destination proposal?”_

_Harry smirked. “Not really. I just heard Hermione and Ron talking about it. They want to go back to Egypt and Ron wants to propose there.”_

_“Hm” Draco turned back to the stars, Harry followed his example. “I heard those food proposals could also go bad.” When Harry chuckled, Draco seemed to realize his accidental pun and rolled his eyes. “One bride-to-be actually ate the ring in her favorite cake.”_

_Harry burst out laughing and shook his head. “That could be me. If the ring was in a treacle tart, that ring would be gone in a second…”_

_Draco snickered and turned on his stomach. “So, what would be your favorite marriage proposal?” His smile was big and he seemed to be genuinely interested. Harry was just hoping that he wasn’t trying to turn those ideas into reality._

_“Candles. As many as the room could hold! On every surface there should be thousands of candles!”_

_It was quiet, before Draco chuckled. “Do you know what kind of a fire hazard that would be?! Why not one single, really romantic candle?”_

_Harry shook his head. “At least five on every surface. Otherwise, where’s the romantic mood?!” Draco smirked, but Harry continued. “On the floor should be roses and on the way to my future loved one, I would love to see love notes. Just small notes about why he wants to marry me and what he likes about me. Also there would be some kind of music playing that would already tell me what would be about to happen.”_

_“So just your run-of-the-mill kind of marriage proposal” Draco stated and Harry grinned at him. The Slytherin leaned over and captured his lips in a slow and beautiful kiss._

_Harry smiled at him. “What about your proposal?”_

_Draco shrugged. “That could happen between two classes, I honestly couldn’t care any less.”_

_Frowning slightly, Harry shook his head. “Where’s the romance? It’s a proposal, Draco! It’s the most important day of your life and the start of a happy ending! Why would you accept that just somewhere… I would lead a rebellion if anyone would try and propose to me like that.”_

_“Well, you already led a rebellion, darling. And I honestly don’t know why people think it needs to be that romantic! You can have romance as much as you want in a relationship. Why does the proposal need to be a thousand percent romance?”_

_Harry smiled and stroked Draco’s cheek. “Because, Draco, it somehow shows your partner that you would go out of your way to do something very romantic, just because you want the proposal to be perfect.”_

_Smirking slightly, the blond wizard shook his head. “If the time comes and I’m actually going to propose to you, I will not put a thousand candles on every surface that I can find, Harry. That’s just plain stupid!”_

*

Every inch on the floor had been filled with white and red candles. There was a path of rose petals leading to the center of the room and Draco who stood there grinning. He did look slightly nervous and as Harry took one step into the room, he saw small notes next to the path. Hesitating sightly, he felt his hands tremble with nervousness. This was his dream! He had never realised that Draco was the one who was supposed to stand in the middle, asking this very important question. Nobody else would make him feel this way.

> Reasons why I love you…
> 
> … you’re the most amazing human being I have ever met.

Harry bit his tongue and took another step.

> … your personality shines brighter than any star.

He could feel his eyes water, as he looked up at Draco once again. His grin had changed into a beautiful smile and now, that Harry was actually in the room, he could see his everyday clothes were gone and he was wearing a rather handsome dark blue suit. Looking back at the floor, Harry found another note.

> … you care so much that sometimes you forget about yourself.

Smirking slightly, Harry did have to give the Slytherin that point. He took another step and found the last two pieces of Draco’s notes.

> … you are my first true love and I will never forget about that.
> 
> … because you mean more to me than I want to admit.

“But right now” Draco said quietly, when Harry stopped right in front of him. He looked up into those beautiful grey eyes and smiled slightly. “Today” Draco started again. “I will admit to everything. Harry, do you remember what we’ve talked…”

“Yes” Harry interrupted him and smiled softly. He remembered all their discussions at Hogwarts. Especially this one, because Draco had actually somewhat promised him to propose to him.

Draco nodded softly and got onto one knee, smiling up at Harry, who could feel some tears running down his cheek. He couldn’t believe this was happening! He took out a ring from his pocket, shining silver in the light of all the candles.

“Will you marry me, Harry? Will you make me the happiest person on this earth and be my husband?”

Harry nodded, feeling the tears flood down on his cheeks. Draco softly pushed the ring on Harry’s finger, before he stood up and kissed him gently, while stroking the tears out of his face. He couldn’t believe what Draco had done. Not only had he done exactly what Harry had theorized about what he wanted in a marriage proposal, but he had overcome his own view on the matter and actually chose to take him first.

“I love you, Draco” Harry whispered and pulled his fiancé into a tight hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:
> 
> [Émile Waldteufel – The Skater’s Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirn3M3ewQc)
> 
> By the way: ‘Waldteufel’ is German and means: forest devil. I just thought it was too funny not to let you guys know. So now you know a little German ;)


	16. May I have this Dance?

The wedding planning with Draco hadn’t taken as much energy out of Harry as he would have thought. Planning with Ginny had been a pain, but Draco made it all fun and interesting and most of all, he listened to what Harry had to say. They hadn’t invited a lot of people, close friends and two journalists for the press coverage. Blaise and Pansy had been over the moon when Draco and Harry had told them that they were allowed to write about their wedding.

While Ginny and Harry’s wedding would have taken place in October, Draco had decided to have a spring wedding. He wanted to somehow show that their relationship – even though a little new to the world – was going to stay strong. Harry had absolutely nothing against it. Yet still, as the day came closer, he had gotten a little nervous and Draco sat him down ten days before the wedding.

“You’re not eating enough, Harry love” he said and presented him with a table full of food.

Harry grinned slightly and shook his head. “What are you even talking about? I’m not going to eat all of this!”

Draco chuckled. “No, but this is what we could have on the menu and I want you to try everything and tell me what you like most. And for that to decide, you do need to eat or at least try something from every plate. So, eat!”

Smiling, Harry sat down. Before he could start to eat, Draco waved towards the door and a second later a young boy with platinum blond hair stood next to both of them.

“Teddy!” Harry called out and hugged him immediately. His godson had been almost destroyed when he had heard that Harry wasn’t going to marry Ginny, since it meant that he couldn’t live with Harry. On Christmas day, he had brought over Draco to meet Andromeda and Teddy once again and they had spent some amazing hours together.

When they left again, Andromeda had quietly told him that she wouldn’t have given him the permission to adopt Teddy, had he married Ginny. Apparently, she had always thought that he was just doing it to get his godson not to find true love.

Teddy had started to adore Draco and it hadn’t needed long until he started dancing lessons as well. He had watched Draco and Harry dance in their living room once and was taken in by the closeness of the two and had asked the Slytherin into oblivion until Draco had called out for Rita, another teacher, and she had introduced him to her class. Rita was actually the woman Harry had seen the first day when he had walked into the dance studio.

The three of them had started to get a very tight family and nothing could tear them apart. However, Harry would have never guessed to see his godson on their food tasting for the wedding.

Draco smirked at him. “Teddy’s our advisor, but I still want you to eat as much as you can, love. Right Teddy, we want your godfather to be as healthy as possible?”

“Yes!” Teddy called out and grinned broadly.

Harry laughed and they all started eating. After a while in which they hadn’t really discussed anything else but the food, they had made their final decision with the help of Harry’s godson. Smirking slightly, Harry had to admit that he loved Draco and Teddy’s relationship. Even though it was quite new, they loved to be around each other and Harry had once caught the two of them making dinner, when he was back from running an errand.

Sneaking up on the two of them, he heard Teddy asking Draco a lot of questions about Hogwarts and how he had remembered it. Luckily, the Slytherin had ignored everything concerning the war and told him about Hogwarts after the war, when he and Harry had been together. This had interested Teddy even more and he had asked even more questions, until Draco had turned around and saw him leaning at the door frame, grinning at the two of them.

Teddy went into the small guest room that Draco had offered him whenever he was with them, and left the two adults sitting at the table. Draco smirked at Harry, got up and with a flick of his hand, had all the dishes cleared off the table.

“You’re such a little show off, Draco” Harry smirked and when Draco walked over with a glass of Harry’s favorite red wine, they walked over to the couch, the Slytherin pulling him onto his laps.

“Just for you, love” he whispered and put his arms around him, having put the wine glass down on the small table next to the sofa. Harry smiled and leaned against him, his head hiding on the crook of his fiancé’s neck.

For a while, the two of them just relished in the feeling of being so close to each other and Harry was actually about to fall asleep, when Draco shook him slightly. Yawning, he shook his head and sat back up straight.

His fiancé smiled at him. “How are you feeling, Harry? I know that you think marriage is just an institution for pain and suffering, but do you…”

Harry started laughing and shook his head. “How can it be pain and suffering, when I’m with you, Draco? I think in my younger years I’ve never realized that I could marry you as well. I just always thought I’d have to marry other people. And that would have been pain and suffering. But with you? I love you, Draco.”

There was a sole tear running down his fiancé’s cheek and Harry carefully stroked it out of his face. “You are my everything, love” he whispered and could basically see Draco about to fall apart. Before that could happen, he drew him into another passionate kiss.

“I love you too, Harry” the Slytherin said quietly after a few minutes, in which he had finally composed himself again.

*

_There was a new music sounding, violins in the air, and Harry wasn’t sure he liked it. It had a good rhythm, but everything else sometimes didn’t seem to match. When he turned to Draco he frowned, though the Slytherin seemed to have watched him very close._

_“What is that?” he asked carefully._

_Draco chuckled. “It’s a waltz called ‘Danse Macabre’, French for morbid dance by Camille Saint-Saëns.” When he saw Harry’s slightly confused look, the Slytherin grinned. “I have decided to teach you some manners and that includes showing you how to waltz.”_

_Harry shook his head. “Under no circumstance will I be dancing! Have you no memory of the Yule Ball? I still have nightmares about that!”_

_“I seriously doubt that you have those nightmares, because I remember someone looking rather nicely” he winked at Harry, which made him blush._

_The Slytherin held out his hands and motioned for him to get off the couch and actually join him. Sighing, Harry felt defeated and got up to join him. Draco smirked, clearly over to moon with his easy victory and started explaining how to dance the waltz._

_“We’re doing the box step, which before you ask” his boyfriend interrupted himself, when he had seen Harry opening his mouth. “I will teach you, don’t worry. We’re basically moving to form a shape of a box. I will be the leader, you’ll follow me.”_

_“Why do I have to follow?” Harry asked, rolling his eyes._

_Draco smirked. “Because I know how to dance the waltz and you don’t. Now be quiet and follow my lead! Place your feet at a hip distance and keep your arms relaxed by your sides, okay?”_

_Rolling his eyes again, Harry did exactly what Draco wanted him to do. He stepped back with his right foot and then his left foot so they were parallel once again. Draco explained that the next step was to move his right foot next to his left foot, so they were touching and side by side. Left foot forward again and then the right one to a slightly more than hip distance to then move the left foot right next to the right one, touching as well._

_“This is how you dance a waltz” Draco smirked. The Slytherin placed his right hand on Harry’s shoulder blade and grabbed his right hand, keeping his elbow at a shoulder’s height,_

_Harry narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing?”_

_Smirking, Draco replied. “Dancing with a partner, love. Put your free hand on my shoulder and keep your elbow at your shoulder height.”_

_“Why would I want to do that?” Harry rolled his eyes and Draco chuckled._

_“Because you do kind of want to learn how to dance the waltz.”_

_He stepped forwards, when Harry stepped back and remembered to step back with his left foot as well, just in time for Draco to move again. Since they were dancing rather slowly, Draco made a lot of stops, reminding him of the next step._

_After half an hour, Harry was rather decent – he thought – and could even dance to the rather fast music playing in the background of them dancing. Laughing, Harry shook his head, suddenly. “Draco, there’s no way you can make me dance this again! It’s so complicated and I don’t think I’m ever going to learn how to do this proper!”_

_His boyfriend simply smirked and kissed him then. “You wouldn’t be Harry Potter if you wouldn’t do the impossible and be a dancing teacher by the end of the year.”_

*

“Ladies and gentlemen, give it up to Harry and Draco Potter-Malfoy!” Theodore’s voice sounded through the big ball room and Harry suddenly felt himself tense slightly.

Draco must have felt or seen it as well, since he leaned over and whispered: “Don’t worry, darling. It’s not as if there are thousands of people watching.”

Harry glared at him, but couldn’t stop a smirk forming on his lips. “I hate you for this.”

Chuckling, his newly-wed husband grabbed his hands and they walked onto the dance floor. The waltz from the movie Amelie suddenly sounded and Harry smiled softly, remembering the two of them dancing to this song for an entire evening. This didn’t feel much different than in the living room.

The moment Draco stepped forward, Harry had completely forgotten where they were and only saw Draco’s eyes and remembered how to dance with him. Nothing felt forced, everything was easy and beautiful. He only once slightly caught the eyes of Hermione who had moved a tissue to her eyes.

“You look very handsome tonight” Draco said quietly and showed his gorgeous smile. In no time, the waltz ended and Harry’s husband pulled him in for a tight hug, while their guests applauded. The buffet was opened a second later and everyone stormed in to get something to eat.

Harry saw Pansy and Blaise walking through the guests, asking all kinds of questions. Right now, they were interviewing a very happy looking Teddy. Smirking, he walked up behind his godson, who was now proudly stating that he could dance almost as well as Harry could.

“I wouldn’t say that per se” Harry interrupted his interview and grinned at Draco’s two best friends. Blaise and Pansy laughed.

“Just the man I wanted to get for a short question time!” Pansy said and grinned at him. “How do you like your wedding until now?”

Teddy was jumping up and down next to them and Harry chuckled. “Very much, thank you for asking. I couldn’t be happier.”

Blaise looked at his notes, before turning to him. “I haven’t gotten any information out of Draco, but some sources say that the song you two danced to tonight is actually the very first song you two danced together and where he taught you.”

Laughing, Harry shook his head. “I’m going to be generous, Blaise, and I will tell you what our first song was.”

The Slytherin made a silent movement that was probably celebrating his victory, when Draco walked by and must have heard Harry since he put his arms around his husband’s waist and shook his head. “Harry will do no such thing, Blaise. You need to keep your theories for yourself right now.”

“Oh come on, Draco! Harry said he’d tell me!”

He looked at Harry, clearly trying to gain his voice to back him up, but Harry only laughed. “I’m sorry, Blaise, I’m not going against my lovely husband’s wishes. Not tonight anyway. Maybe if you come by tomorrow, when Draco’s teaching another…”

His husband interrupted him, by kissing him and tearing him a few steps away from the two reports which were both laughing loudly. 

“You’re not being a very nicely behaved husband, darling” Draco grinned at him.

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry answered quickly. “I don’t think you’d like me any other way, love.”

Before anyone could say something, Teddy was standing in front of him and smiled broadly at the newly-wed couple. “Harry, I want to tell you something! It’s very important and it can’t wait!”

Smirking slightly, Harry motioned him to go on and even caught Pansy chuckling softly. Well, if it was something weird, Draco would just ask his two friends not to include it into the newspaper that was being written right now.

Teddy grinned. “I’m very happy for you, because you’re my favorite person in this entire world!” he stated.

Harry chuckled. “Teddy, that’s not a nice thing to say when Draco standing right next to me!”

His godson turned to Draco and frowned slightly. The two of them looked at each other for a couple of seconds until Teddy turned back to Harry and grinned. “Don’t worry, Harry. Draco thinks so too!”

And with that he was gone and left four surprised adults standing together. Harry was the first to act and burst out laughing, when Blaise followed. Pansy shook her head, grinning broadly and Draco chuckled, rubbing his forehead.

“Merlin’s beard, that child outsmarted me!”

Harry snickered and held out his hands, when the live band started playing the Voices of Spring Waltz by Johann Strauss II. “May I have the next dance, my love?”

“You may, my dear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Music:  
[Yann Tiersen – La Valse d’Amelie Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obqs3cyOeUc)
> 
> [Johann Strauss II – Voices of Spring Waltz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gG9YSaf4Mg)
> 
> [ Camille Saint-Saëns - Danse Macabre ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM)


	17. The new Dance Teacher

About half a year later, Teddy had changed his home, gotten his Hogwarts letter and was off to learn magic and impressing the small ladies with his dancing skills. He had gotten to learn how to waltz from Harry, and Draco had taught him a little Salsa as a revenge for Harry who had given Blaise the information of the very first song Draco and he had danced to.

Well, Harry had also gotten a huge revenge as Draco had basically bullied him into learning three different dancing styles. Every evening, when Draco closed his dancing studio, the two of them had private dancing lessons, which if you asked Harry, he would hate very much. However, everyone who knew him was aware that he actually loved it and there was nothing he would like to do apart from dancing with Draco.

Every Tuesday, when Draco had his meetings with former addicts, he was cooking a homemade meal for most of them and they sat down to eat on the floor, talking about dancing, careers and love life. They had started to accept Harry almost immediately, when he had told them about his abusing almost-wife and apparently, some had made the same experience. Especially when Harry told them that she had called him too broken to be fixed, they had almost instantly told him that there was nothing on him that needed to be fixed.

And then, there was Harry’s university degree, which he had finished after three years. Teddy and Draco actually had always joked that Harry and his godson were in school together, though Harry had chosen to stay in Muggle University, Cambridge to be exact.

Ever since Ginny had told him that she had just wanted his fame, Harry was sure that if they had spent more time together… or even danced together, he would have realized it. So, he had come up with his plan and once he had presented it to his husband, Draco was all for it.

However, it had required him to study psychology and if he could, even a few more courses. Thankfully, he could. Draco was okay with seeing him only on weekends and if he missed him too much, he would just apparate right into Harry’s room and stay there for the night. Teddy was also very happy for Harry to have finally found what he had wanted to do and so… after three very hard years, Harry returned to London, to Draco with a psychology degree and another plan for Draco’s dancing studio.

> **Harry Potter-Malfoy opens up a Counseling Dance Class in Draco Potter-Malfoy’s dance studio**  
by Blaise Zabini
> 
> As you remember by the thousands of comments we have printed, the Wizarding World had no understanding of why our Savior, Harry Potter-Malfoy, chose to study psychology in a Muggle University. In fact, most wizards and witches thought he had given up on magic all together after his unsuccessful engagement with Ginevra Weasley. However, we are happy to report that Harry had been seen back in Wizarding London with his husband and godson after having been gone for almost four years.
> 
> In a recent interview with the Prophet, Harry mentioned that he had found his calling through the two people he had been in a serious relationship with. ‘Draco showed me my love of dancing and Ginny, well, she showed me that it’s important to talk to your partner from time to time. I decided to put all of this together and have a dancing class that should be something of a couples therapy.’
> 
> Apparently, this idea had long been supported by Draco Potter-Malfoy himself, who had offered Harry space in his dance studio so he could start this lesson as soon as possible. Not only witches and wizards were allowed into this course, however. ‘I don’t want to have couples here that think just because I’m the Savior, I can save their marriage’ Harry explained, while Draco interrupted him, by pointing out the obvious joke in his husband’s sentence. Harry continued: ‘I want it to be filled with people that actually want to help their relationship grow strong.’
> 
> The pair has already so many interested people that they had to open up another course. Draco confirmed that there are no more courses happening, so if you are interested in getting your marriage or engagement or really any relationship into a healthy state, be sure to be there as soon as possible, as only a few more places are available.

Harry put down the papers and rolled his eyes at Blaise and Pansy who had both come over for breakfast. “You are such an idiot, Blaise! Do you know how many wizards will be here in the next few hours?”

Both Slytherin burst out laughing and just that second, Draco walked into the living room, frowning slightly. “What’s going on in here?”

Harry showed his husband the newspaper and he quickly read it, before glaring at his friend. “Zabini, how could you! I told you I didn’t want any coverage from any of you! Come on, how am I supposed to explain to the Muggles that there are thousands of weirdly dressed people in front of my door?”

“Most wizards still have no idea how to dress like a Muggle” Harry added and pointedly looked at Blaise, who in fact was rocking a jumper that seemed to be from the sixties, next to way too elegant trousers. Pansy laughed loudly and shrugged her shoulders, though she seemed to be agreeing with Harry’s assessment of her husband.

Blaise smirked. “Just call everyone and tell them that you’re closed for today because of a family emergency and deal with all the wizards and witches today.”

Draco sighed defeated and walked towards the phone. Harry immediately caught his wrist, and shook his head. “Listen, there’s a Muggle repelling charm, right? How about…”

“Harry, I’m not repelling the people who work here!”

Harry chuckled and shook his head. “I know, love. But how about we do a wizard repelling charm?”

All the Slytherins stopped dead in their tracks, looking at Harry in a manner of either ‘he must have lost his mind’ or ‘how did I not get this idea’. Pansy was the first to speak up from the group of Slytherins.

“How exactly can you do that? The Muggle repelling charm has been created in the span of over ten years! This wizard repelling charm needs to work almost immediately” she said, clearly wondering how Harry was envisioning it.

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry smirked. “Just swap the part about Muggles with wizards and witches. Instead of Muggle money, focus on Wizarding money and exclude the wizards that are already here, as well as everyone that has already told us they would like to be part of the couples therapy dance course and hope everything works out.”

Once again, everyone was quiet. Harry was sure that his husband was either thinking out what he had said or that fact that he had just come up with something like this in a matter of seconds. They had always had discussions about where Harry had belonged, since the Hat had wanted to put him into Slytherin and he had chosen not to. Right now, Draco was probably thinking about Harry belonging to Ravenclaw.

“Let’s do it!” Draco smirked and took out his wand.

And well, in fact, after two hours, they had succeeded. They could even try it, as Ron and Hermione arrived a second later and Harry realized he hadn’t accepted them into the spell. So after first failing to go through the invisible wall, Draco included them and suddenly they could come through.

“What are you doing, guys?” Ron asked and shook his head.

Draco smirked, but Pansy was the one to answer. “Blaise wrote an article about Harry’s dancing course today and now we’re trying to minimize the trouble for all the Muggles.”

Hermione laughed loudly and shook her head. “Well done, Blaise.”

Even though her voice was basically dripping with sarcasm, the Slytherin winked at her and bowed. All while Ron crossed his arms in front of his chest, shaking his head.

“Leave my wife alone, look at yours instead!”

Before this conversation could get out of hand, Harry grabbed his best friends and brought them into the dance studio which Draco had given Harry for his lessons. In fact, his course was starting in an hour. His husband had followed him, with his friends. Pansy and Blaise were in fact also going to take part of his class (just like Hermione and Ron).

Turning to Draco, Harry smiled sheepishly. “Do you think I can do this?”

“Of course, love. We’ve been over this for ages! And with your degree, you should be able to do all kind of things!”

“Thank you for believing in me, Draco.”

“Always, Harry. Always.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for keeping up with the story :)
> 
> I like how it turned out. Let me know if you'd like all the flashbacks in correct order, or if you'd be interested in a full story with all the flashbacks included. I mean, you already know how it turns out... so maybe not ;) (also that story would need a little time, as I do kind of want to finish my other stories first...)
> 
> Anyways: Thank you so much for reading this story and I'm thankful for all the comments and kudos!  
\- Jolly


End file.
